Torn
by Red Crown
Summary: It's difficult being the leader of the RowdyRuff Boys, getting straight A's in high school, and assisting in Him's most sinister plan yet; especially when your mortal enemy, who's recieved the gift of prophecy, keeps distracting you.
1. Break In

**Red Crown:** If you wish you may refer to me as RC. I would like to thank you for reading my story. I wish you a happy reading.

I have decided to remove the spiritual element of this fic and just turn it into a traditional action and romance genre. Please enjoy.

* * *

CHAPTER ONE: **_"Break In"_**

_Monstrous roars and howls from many beasts filled the air. Blood curdling screams quickly followed. The sound of automatic weapons fire and cannons was meshed in with the chaotic noises. _

_14 year-old Blossom opened her eyes and found herself in downtown Townsville. Her long red hair was soaked in the rain. She wore light blue jeans tucked into white ugg boots and a simple pink sweater that had written on it in white, glittery letters:_ _"You are well-educated and you look cute, but that's not going to cut it."_ _She was laying on her back in the middle of the street. It was cold, drafty, and a heavy rain was showering the city._

_As she looked around she had come to find that the city of Townsville was a mess. Vicious monsters unlike any she had ever seen were rampant in the streets. They all wore armor and some even carried weapons. The city itself was in ruins and looked as if it had been struck by a horrible hurricane. The people of Townsville were running everywhere and trying to get away from the horrible beasts. The Townsville police force had called in the help of the military and this had turned Townsville into a battle zone between the army of monsters and the military with the innocent people caught in the middle. _

_Then a thought struck her, "Where are my sisters?"_

_She launched into the air in a desperate search for Bubbles and Buttercup. She weaved through the many monsters, battle tanks, and attack helicopters that were locked in combat. Finally she found them both in craters on the ground in front of a church. They were bruised, battered, and bleeding. Blossom landed by them and checked her sisters for a pulse. The pulses were there, but they were weak. Blossom swiftly pulled them both into the church._

_The vast church was empty. It consisted of two wide aisles that went down to a pulpit that had a podium and a large white cross behind it. The sounds of beasts and battle were muffled from inside. She went to the bathroom and grabbed some water and antibacterial soap. She came back and cleaned their wounds, then bandaged them up with a first-aid kit that she found behind the podium._

_With that done she wondered where the professor was, but then she decided that she couldn't worry about him right now. Many other people's lives were at stake and it would be selfish to be concerned only with the ones she loved. She had to focus on saving the people and the best way to do that was to save her sisters. She and her sisters might be Townsville's only chance._

_Bubbles groaned. Her eyes slowly creaked open. Blossom went to her side immediately._

_"Bubbles, who's responsible for this?" she asked._

_Bubbles' arm slowly lifted and pointed behind Blossom toward the church doors. "Behind you," she said._

_Blossom jerked around and found three silhouetted figures standing in the door way. The sounds of battle poured into the room from outside. A bolt of lightning struck the sky behind them and for a brief moment she saw their features._

_Suddenly a large red claw came crashing down through the roof of the church and grabbed her. The claw was nearly the size of the church itself and she was being pinched on its tip. Only her head was visible. Blossom tried to fight it, but all her might was useless against its crushing grip._

_It lifted her off the ground and raised her high into the sky. The raging battle between the military and the monsters below suddenly seemed small. Her eyes traced the long arm to find that it belonged to non other than Him. He was massive in size. His height rivaled that of the Twin Towers. He laughed maniacally, and his laugh echoed through the sky._

_Far off in the distance Blossom heard a woman screaming as if she were being brutally murdered._

"Wake up, Red!"

Blossom snapped her eyes open and shot up in bed.

She awoke in a cold sweat. Her covers were nearly soaked. She was sitting up in the room that she had spent her child hood in. She was laying on a brand new triple bunk bed that the professor had made for her and her sisters. She shared an unusually close bond with her sisters so none of them minded keeping the same room, but they each wanted their own bed. Her bed was on the top bunk. Bubbles and Buttercup were floating at her side. The professor had rushed up stairs and was standing in the doorway, light pouring in from the hall. All of them were in their nightgowns.

"Blossom, you were screaming in your sleep. Are you okay?" asked Bubbles.

"Of course she's not okay, Bubbles. She's sweating cold," said Buttercup.

"Blossom, what happened?" asked the Professor.

Blossom was thankful to have her family that loved her. However, she didn't want to worry them over something as little as a dream. She also wanted her sisters to know that she was still a confident and reliable leader and no dream was going to change that.

"I'm alright. I just had a bad dream. Don't worry about it," she replied.

"Are you sure? I've never heard you scream like that even when we're fighting the worst of villains," replied Buttercup.

"Yeah, It was just a really scary nightmare," she said.

"Want to talk about?" asked Bubbles.

"No, thanks. I'd rather just get back to bed," she said.

"Well, if you ever need anything, we're always here for you," said the professor.

Bubbles climbed into her bed, which was the middle bunk, and Buttercup climbed into her bed, the bottom bunk. The professor closed the door and returned to his own bed.

After they had all gone back to sleep Blossom decided to do the same and get as much rest as she possibly could. Tomorrow was a busy day and she would need the rest.

* * *

Midnight: the darkest hour of the day. The street lamps and the bright white sphere in the sky were the only sources of illumination. The paved streets were well kept. A sign on a traffic light designated the street "St. Key." At the end of St. Key stood the Townsville Museum. The Townsville Museum was vast in size and at this time of night had all its lights dimmed. Only a few security guards armed with flashlights and clubs patrolled the hallways.

Silently, three dark figures landed on the top of the dome shaped roof that was made of glass. The three individuals were clad in black. They had ski masks to cover their faces and pushed up on their foreheads were sets of night vision goggles. Strapped to their sides were small sacks filled with a variety of devices. Only their eyes were visible. One sported blue eyes, the other barred forest green, and the leader adorned crimson red.

The one with blue eyes reached into his sack and pulled out a glass cutter. He carefully cut a hole in the glass equal in size to a phone booth. He then pulled a suction cup device out of his sack and put it to the glass. With careful precision he lifted the cut of glass out of its place and gently put it down near the side of the hole. All three figures dropped in the hole. Well before they reached the floor they stopped and hovered several feet above the many lasers and cameras that they knew were in the area.

The red eyed leader scanned the room. The only light in the room was from the full moon. Various artifacts were encased in glass and open for display. He spotted one camera that was surveying the direction he wanted to proceed in. He squinted his eyes and unleashed a concentrated stream of laser energy that fried the lens of the camera. He then reached into his sack and pulled out a spray can of water. He sprayed a misty cloud of water in front of him and watched as the laser lights reflected off the tiny droplets. Stealthily the three figures moved on, careful to avoid disturbing any of the laser beams.

They went down a rather crooked hallway that was laden with lasers. Guided by the mist from the leader's spray can they carefully avoided all the beams.

When they reached the end of the hallway, they suddenly heard foot steps coming from the right. Quickly they pressed their backs against the right wall. A security guard strolled by carelessly whistling an unknown tune and holding a newspaper. He sat down on a bench that was located near some dinosaur fossil models and began to read the paper. His back was towards the three figures.

"How on earth did the Giants beat the Patriots?" mumbled the guard.

The leader wanted to leave as little evidence of their presence there as possible. However, he didn't know how long the guard was going to be there. If the guard was there too long, then he and his team might be spotted by another guard that could be passing by. There was no other choice. He motioned to his green eyed accomplice to take the guard out.

His accomplice's eyes lit up with joy as he immediately bolted to the guard and struck him in the back of his head. The blow was silent, swift, and precise. The man went limp, fell to the side, and collapsed on the bench.

"Hopefully when he wakes up he will assume that he just fell asleep reading the paper," thought the leader.

He then looked down the hall to his right. There was a door labeled "B-432 Roman Civilization." His eyes were filled with delight upon finding his goal, but then became filled with horror as he realized that there was a video camera on the wall above the door and it was looking in the direction of the knocked out guard. He scolded himself in his thoughts for not being more careful. Quickly, he burned out the lens with a concentrated stream of his laser vision. With any luck, his accomplice might not have been in the camera's view long enough to be identified.

He then motioned for both of his comrades to head to the door. They swiftly and stealthily made their way to the door. The leader jiggled the handle and found that it was locked. Not a problem, he thought. He rushed over to the unconscious guard and took the ring of keys from his belt. He then flipped through them until he found a key with "B-432" imprinted on the head. He put the key in the door and it fit like a glove. With the door unlocked he opened it just a crack, then sprayed a cloud of mist inside. There were no lasers.

He then opened the door all the way and entered. There were no windows in the room to allow moonlight inside and all the lights had been switched off. It was pitch black. Each of the three thieves dawned their night vision goggles and searched the room. They immediately discarded the vast variety of artifacts and displays about the room. What they wanted was on a stand in the center of the room encased in glass.

In the center of the room was a large vase with markings that paid homage to the ancient Roman god Hades. The vase was filled with dust that happened to be the remains of a Roman of the time. The leader sprayed a cloud of mist around the glass case. The sides of the case were covered in lasers. Only a single laser protected the top of the case. The leader motioned for his blue eyed assistant to take care of the case and his green eyed assailant to take care of the laser.

The green eyed thief reached into his sack and pulled out a small mirror and some measuring tape. Most laser alarm systems worked by using a laser to measure the distance to the other side of the wall. If something were to pass through the beam and the length of the laser was shortened, it would set off the alarm. He made a precise estimate with the measuring tape of where the middle of the beam was and slowly cut the beam with the mirror. He made sure that the beam was being reflected at a point on the opposite wall that left the beam with exactly the same length it would have had if it were facing straight. He held it with steady hands in that position.

The one with blues eyes then made a circular incision in the top of the glass case and used the suction cup to lift it out of place. This allowed the leader to reach into the vase. He fumbled around inside the vase until he found what he was looking for: a shiny metal object that could not be properly seen in the amount of light given in the room. He stuffed the object in his sack and motioned to his companions that the job was finished.

The one with blue eyes replaced the glass and the one whose gaze was green removed the mirror. After locking the door and giving the guard back his keys the three headed out the same way that they had entered. Just before they left, the leader used his laser vision to weld the glass hole in the roof back together. To the untrained eye, it appeared as if they were never there. With that finished the three flew away, victorious in their mission.


	2. Pancakes Anyone?

**Red Crown:** I would just like to let it be known that everything Him will say in his evil voice I will make in **bold** letters.

**

* * *

**

CHAPTER TWO: **_"Pancakes Anyone?"_**

All that could be seen was an endless void of nothingness. Red masses of rock, various in size, drifted in every direction without guidance. Drifting along in the void was a flat rock with a small kitchen on top of it. The kitchen consisted of a stove, an oven, a microwave, and to the far left a sink with a dish washer. Suspended on a long metal arm was a small TV in front of the stove. The stove was aflame. Behind the stove was the most evil and sinister being alive, flipping pancakes and watching the Townsville cooking channel. A being whose name was never to be mentioned, but could only be referred to as Him. He wore a white apron that had written on it: "kiss the cook."

Three individuals clad in black appeared seemingly out of the shadows and descended onto the rock behind Him, their arms crossed.

"Hello, boys. I trust you were successful in your mission," said Him without even turning around.

The three individuals spoke with voice synthesizers. Instead of their actual pitches and tones being heard, an electronically altered deep voice emitted from their mouths.

"We have what you want as promised. No one saw us," replied the red eyed leader as he reached into his sack and pulled out a small, gold ring with a spherical ruby magically suspended in the center of it. The jewel was constantly spinning.

"You'd better be right. **I don't want the girls to even suspect something is up!**" said Him.

"You don't need to worry about the girls," replied the one with a green gaze.

"What? I can't understand you," said the evilest of evil as his neck extended and his head turned around to face them, his arms never missing a beat on fixing the pancakes.

"I said, 'you don't need to worry about the girls.'"

"For goodness sake, boys, take off those voice synthesizers. I already know who you are," replied Him.

The black figures each gave a groan.

"Awe, these things are so cool," said the blue eyed figure.

Each of the three individuals removed their masks and revealed themselves to be non-other than the RowdyRuff Boys. Brick, the red-eyed and red-haired leader, tossed the small object to his master, who immediately grew an arm out of his back and caught it effortlessly. After examining it closely he merely said, "Perfect. Only three more to go."

His eyes then shifted toward the boys. "So you're sure no one saw you?" he asked.

"Yes," replied Butch, the green-eyed brunet.

"Are you absolutely sure?" asked Him again, he eyes narrowing.

"Absolutely," said Boomer, the blue-eyed blond, with a proud smirk. "Other than that video camera on the wall that most likely caught Butch knocking out that security guard, we were completely invisible."

Butch and Brick both slapped their hands on their foreheads at their brother's stupidity. Boomer was clueless. Butch elbowed his blond brother in the gut with enough force to make him keel over. Brick on the other hand quickly tried to cover.

"Butch was only in view for a split second before I melted the lens. It's doubtful that anyone will be able to recognize him, let alone identify him," said the red ruff.

They looked at Him expecting an angry rage to break out due to their failure. Instead, they got something they didn't quite expect.

"It's okay this time. This was your first mission of this type after all," he said.

The RowdyRuff Boys each gave a sigh of relief. Just then Him's expression turned vicious.

"**But next time there will be terrible consequences if you fail to keep yourselves from being seen!**" he shouted. "**And now with that** **settled...**"

Suddenly, in a puff of smoke a table of three was set in front of the boys and each of them was placed in a seat at the table.

"Pancakes anyone?"

* * *

_The next day..._

The PowerPuff Girls made it to their first period English class at Pokey Oaks High School on time and with all their required materials as usual. They started the day off as normal, which involved saying the pledge of allegiance to the flag and listening to the morning announcements.

Blossom and her sisters were dressed in their school uniforms. Blossom's consisted of a light pink shirt with a collar, a knee-length black skirt, tall white socks, and black dress shoes similar to those she wore as a little girl. Her hair was in a long pony tail. She had a black Buxton organizer at her side, which she used to hold many things of great importance.

To Blossom's right sat Buttercup. She wore a similar uniform, only she had a black shirt and a bright green, long-sleeved under shirt. Instead of white socks she had black nylons. Her black, shoulder length-hair was straight and clean, a rare occurrence.

Bubbles was at her left. Her uniform only differed in that she wore a light blue uniform shirt. On her face was a pair of glasses with a silver frame. She still had her hair in pig tails.

"Wow, our first day of high school," said Blossom.

"Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! These are going to be some of the most fun years of our lives! We might have many adventures and fall in love and go shopping together and-" said Bubbles ecstatically.

"Blah! Blah! Blah!" rudely interrupted Buttercup. "Why isn't there any crime or monsters invading Townsville! Where's the beef of my life! If something doesn't blow up sooner or later I'm going to start having withdrawals!"

"Now, Buttercup, you and I both know that ever since we've been on the job crime has plummeted to an all time low. Even most of the monsters are too scared to come to Townsville with us around. This should give us plenty of time to adapt to our new high school lives," said Blossom.

Just then the hotline went off. Blossom bolted to the phone and picked it up.

"What is it mayor?... Someone broke into the museum. When?... You want us to investigate... We're on it," She said and hung up the phone.

"Girls, there was a break-in! We need to investigate!" she said before flying out the window.

"Darn it! I was so looking forward to the first day of school," said Buttercup filled with sarcasm. She quickly followed behind.

"Wait for me!" said Bubbles as she trailed behind her sisters.

_Minutes later..._

"So let me get this straight. Nothing was stolen," said Blossom.

Now outside Townsville Museum, the PowerPuff Girls were trying to get some clues as to who broke into it.

"Not that we know of," replied the policeman. "Whoever snuck in was both well skilled and well equipped. The only evidence left behind were the burned out camera lenses."

"Can we see them?" asked Buttercup.

The cop led her across the caution tape and into the museum. He led her down several hallways and stopped at a wall with a camera on it. He then took the camera off the wall and unscrewed the lens from the body. Blossom took the lens and began examining it with her eyes.

Just then something clicked and it showed on her face visibly. She reached into her Buxton organizer and pulled out a digital camera. She snapped some shots and then went to another camera. She unscrewed the lens from the body and held it as far away from her as she could extend her arm. She squinted her eyes and unleashed a narrow concentrated stream of her laser vision and burned out the lens. She then held the two lenses side by side. They looked identical.

"Whoever burned through these lenses must have had our laser vision or something like it," said Blossom.

Another policeman walked into the room. "Girls, you might want to come see this," he said.

Moments later they were in a police van that had all sorts of tools for analyzing video tapes. On the right was a monitor and below it were several video players.

"What you are about to see is footage from a security camera of the break-in last night," said the policeman before pressing play.

The monitor came to life and an image of a guard sitting on a bench became visible. In the corner of the screen was the date, yesterday. Suddenly a black figure came up behind the guard and struck him. The guard instantly fell to the side. Seconds later the screen fizzled out. The policeman rewinded the film and then paused it when the black figure came into view. The film was black and white and the figure moved so fast that it appeared as a blur. Not much could be distinguished.

"Don't take this the wrong way," said the officer, "but an estimate of the figure's size and mass is very similar to yours."

Blossom used her digital camera to take a picture of the monitor with the dark figure in view. "Thank you, officer. We will analyze this evidence carefully."

With that done, the girls then took off back towards the school.

"It almost looks like we were the ones who broke into the museum," said Bubbles.

"At least we have some suspects," joked Buttercup.

They arrived back at school in no time.

* * *

The clock read 9:30 A.M.

The sound of fists hitting a punching bag repeatedly flowed through the air.

The three brothers were hanging out in there current residence located in an old abandoned warehouse near Townsville Harbor. The warehouse constantly smelled of the ocean that was close by. The air was fairly humid, another courtesy of the ocean. The sound of waves and an occasional vehicle driving by were the only sounds that dared to disturb the outside. The inside was vast and contained various rows of racks and shelves for storage. Makeshift rooms had been made with curtains. The floors were constructed entirely of concrete.

Butch was in his room constantly striking his rather worn-looking punching bag.

Boomer, on the other hand, was using his laptop with a linkless internet connection to search the web for songs to add to his IPOD. He had Bose sound reduction headphones the made him near good as deaf.

Brick was pacing in his own room with a book in his hand titled "The Art of War."

Suddenly his Blackberry went off. Brick snatched it up and saw that the message was from Him.

_"I want you to go to Pokey Oaks High School and register to be students there right now. I want you to be on your best behavior. Your mission there will be to steal the girls' popularity or to make yourselves appear like saviors in the eyes of the public. I will schedule a monster to attack Townsville Beach right after school so that you may defeat him with all the inhabitants of Townsville watching."_

_"Great,"_ he thought with sarcasm.

_An hour later..._

Within no time at all Brick and his brothers were official students of Pokey Oaks High School. Now 14 years old and starting his first day of high school, he could not help, but anticipate the coming conflict.

The lady at the front desk asked them if they would like their names to be announced over the school speakers. Politely, the RowdyRuff Boys refused. They each knew what each other was thinking. They simply wanted to see the shocked looks on the girls' faces when they realized that there evil counter parts were attending school with them.

They decided to head to the library and wait there until the current period, which happened to be fourth period, was over.

Brick wore his school uniform, which consisted of a black polo shirt and black pants. However, he had his own jacket, which was red with black and silver streaks going down the sleeves and down the zipper. The word "Leader" was written on the back. He had black sneakers with two red bands going across each side. Crowned on his head was his bright red, backwards hat. His red hair was held in a short messy pony tail.

Butch had uniform black pants, a uniform black polo shirt, and a simple, jungle camouflage jacket. Adorned on his feet were black combat boots. His hair was a spiky mess.

Boomer had uniform black pants, a dark blue uniform polo shirt, and a royal blue sports jacket that, when zipped up, had the words "South pole" in white, cursive writing on the front. He wore white nikies with a blue streak that went across the edge of the soles. Unlike his brothers, he had his hair well groomed.

"Guys, our first class is about to start. We should go over the plan one more time just to make sure we have got it down," said the leader.

"Relax, Brick. We already know what to do," Butch said. "Play hero to steal the girl's popularity in the day, and recover the pieces of Him's most prized possession at night. Then we leave the rest to Him. We are not allowed to start any fights, mayhem, or any other sneaky business that would hurt our image in the eyes of the public. The only time we are allowed to engage the girls in combat is if they interfere with our night time operations. If and when the time comes to engage the girls we are not allowed to kill them because that pleasure is reserved for Him," Butch said as if quoting a text book. "Did I miss anything?"

"What do we do if the girls attack us in school?" asked Boomer.

"They won't. There are too many people here and the girls will never risk hurting them in a stupid brawl," replied Brick.

"But what if they do?" Boomer asked again.

"Then we laugh like circus clowns while they beg for mercy," said Butch as he pounded his fists together. His eagerness to fight showed openly.

"But-"

"Boomer, shut up and listen to your brother," Brick calmly said.


	3. Change of Plans

CHAPTER THREE: **_"Change of Plans"_ **

"The end is near," said Butch.

"No!" said Boomer horrified.

"You will taste my wrath and drink defeat!"

"No! Not again,"

"And now for the finishing blow: B-Three!"

"Argh! You sunk my battleship!"

The boys remained in the library. Boomer and Butch had found a Battleship board game and were playing it to pass the time. Brick was sitting at the same table with them; however, he was not with them. He seemed deeply lost in thought.

"Boys, new plan," he said. "Don't let the PowerPuff Girls see you at all and maintain a low profile. Try not to draw even the slightest bit of attention to yourselves."

"Got it," Butch loyally replied, not even questioning his brother's orders.

"Why are we being so secretive?" asked Boomer.

Brick grabbed a pack of Starburst candy out of his pocket. He took one of each flavor, cherry, strawberry, orange, and lemon, and set them down on the table.

"Obtaining popularity is like running for a political office. It consists primarily of two goals. The first is finding what the majority wants and appealing to it. The second is defacing the opposition in an attempt to make them lose favor from the majority. You not only want people to vote for you, but you also want them to vote against your opponent," he began. He then separated the cherry from the other three flavors. "This is us. We have no idea what's in this school, what's popular, what's not, or who we are trying to gain favor from. We are as good as on an island."

He then pointed to the strawberry flavored starburst, which was close to the other two flavors. "This is the PowerPuff Girls." Boomer and Butch cringed at the mention of the name. "They have been in school with the rest of the students here since kindergarten. Not only do they know what's popular, but they also know each of the kids here personally, and, since they have saved their lives several times, they undoubtedly have favor from the majority."

Butch continued to listen carefully. Boomer meanwhile had a blank stare that obviously revealed he had been completely lost in what his leader was saying.

"No politician is eager to get into a fight when the enemy possesses the high geopolitical ground. I merely want to wait and get a feel for my surroundings before I expend the element of surprise and make the first move," said Brick trying to simplify his statement.

Butch nodded, confirming his understanding. Boomer did the same.

The bell for fourth period rang, a long hollow electronic tone that went throughout the school. The boys headed out of the library and to their first class: History. The boys watched from a far and scanned the students entering the classroom. None of them were the PowerPuff Girls.

They entered the classroom. The walls were littered with large maps of the world of different eras as well as charts that displayed various historical information and timelines. A globe the size of a small fridge rested to the left of the room. The boys took seats in the back of the class nearest to the far corner of the room. Boomer was closest to the wall with Butch to his right and Brick to his far right. The teacher entered and gathered his notes for the day.

"If we have a class with one of the girls wouldn't it be better to just play hokey and avoid them altogether?" asked Boomer.

"It would," replied Butch.

Just then the girl sitting in front of Brick turned around. She had red hair that had been placed in buns by professionals. Her eyes were dark and her face was laden with freckles. She wore the standard school uniform, which included a black knee length skirt, tall socks, and a yellow shirt with a collar. However, she had expensive dress shoes that had been polished by men with experience. Her nails had a professional manicure and her make up appeared to have a high price. On her wrist was a gold bracelet with diamonds in the links. Around her neck was a necklace full of pearls.

Brick thought she looked familiar.

"I know who you are," she said. "RowdyRuff Boys."

The red ruff mumbled a curse word. Their first class and their cover had been blown already. He felt like a horrible leader.

"So what diabolical plan do you have to destroy the PowerPuff Girls now?" she asked.

It was then that Brick recognized her. It was Princess Morebucks, the most spoiled and most rich villain in Townsville. She had once tried to join the RowdyRuff Boys when they were little. However, the RowdyRuffs had refused her in a less then polite manner. Truth be told, none of them liked her at all.

"I'm sorry, Princess Morebucks, but I'm afraid I can't tell you," he replied calmly.

Princess smirked evilly. "That's a pity, because I have a lot of money and I would be willing to throw it towards your plan if you would help me with my plan."

"Listen, babe," started Boomer. "We don't take kindly to bribes. We can complete our plan without your money. So why don't you just go get a million dollar nail job," he continued.

Brick rolled his eyes. Boomer wouldn't know a good ally if it smacked him in the face loaded with cash.

Right on que, Butch reached over and slapped his blue-eyed brother upside the head. "We take very kindly to bribes. How much?" he asked.

Princess reached into a bag that was sitting next to her seat. Her hand went in empty and came out with a fistful of green, dead presidents. "And this is just my pocket change," she said proudly.

Brick smirked. "Okay, I like where this is going," he said.

Butch, however, was skeptical. "Wait a second. What's the catch?"

"Yeah, what's the catch?" asked an equally skeptical Boomer, imitating his brother.

Princess' smirk deepened. "Well, my goal is to steal the PowerPuff Girls' popularity..."

The boys each exchanged a look with each other.

"... And a cute boyfriend is exactly what I need to kick off my plan," she finished.

"Which one of us do you want?" asked Brick.

"The blond one."

"You have yourself a deal."

"Yeah, you have yourself a- Wait a second! Brick, what are you doing?" asked a shocked Boomer; however, his red-haired brother completely ignored him and shook hands with princess while Butch was snorting, trying his hardest to stifle a laugh.

"You know, Princess, there are a lot of differences between us, but I think you and I are going to get along just fine," Brick said.

* * *

Buttercup's eyes never strayed from the clock. It was mere seconds till lunch and she was starving. Finally the clock turned to 12:05. The lunch bell range.

"Yes!" she said and pumped her fist, taking full joy in the moment.

She raced outside to the lunch tables and immediately began a fervent search for her sisters. The lunch tables were placed in a beautiful courtyard which had many trees in the surrounding area and a grassy floor. She found them at a single specific table that was right under a cherry blossom tree.

She headed over to them and sat next to Bubbles who sat right next to Blossom. Across from her sat Mary and a few others that she had just met. "I hate this school already. I'm ready to go home now," she said as she opened her lunch bag and pulled out her peanut butter and honey sandwich.

"Come on, Buttercup. This is exciting!" Blossom replied.

"Yeah, me and Blossom have made so many new friends already. This is a wonderful day and I love it here," giggled Bubbles.

"Only for a bookworm and a ditz like you two," their sister answered.

Blossom frowned. "Buttercup, sometimes your attitude makes me sick."

Just then something drew her attention. A bunch of fellow students were huddled together near the outside lockers that went along the main building of the school. The crowd was constantly chanting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!..."

Blossom almost immediately flew over to the scene and weaved her way through the crowd to the center. She made it just in time to watch Elmer, who was now a very unpopular science whiz, get knocked to the ground. His nose was bleeding and he had a black eye. A large bruise went along the side of his face. Standing over him was a rather large student, who wore jeans, sports sneakers, a Pokey Oaks Football team jacket that was unzipped, and a black tee-shirt that had written on it in white, simple letters: "Mitch the Great."

Mitch Mitchellson had put on several pounds of muscle since the last time Blossom saw him. He was now the largest player on the frontline of the football team. However, he loved to abuse the power that he now possessed over smaller, weaker classmen. Behind him stood the rest of the football team, merely sitting back and watching.

"Come on! Get up! Is that all you got?" he jibbed.

Blossom thought of herself as a peacemaker. In an active sense, a peacemaker not only tries to avoid conflict, but restores and maintains the peace. Right at that moment she was furious. "Mitch, what's wrong with you? You're no better than any supervillian! Knock it off!" she scolded.

Bubbles quickly went to help Elmer up. "Let me take you to the nurse's office," she said quietly.

"Oh, look. It's the know-it-all, the sissy, and the ditz," Mitch replied sarcastically.

Blossom didn't have time to react to what happened next. Maybe Buttercup had gotten tired of Townsville being so quiet or maybe she was just in a really negative mood. Maybe her hunger for action got the better of her. Maybe her time of the month had arrived and she just didn't have it in her to only tell off Mitch or report him to a higher authority like she should have, because she suddenly appeared out of nowhere a gave him a right hook that sent him flying into the rest of the team and knocked them down like bowling pins.

"Why don't you shut up and have a taste of some of your own medicine," she taunted.

Mitch on other hand didn't hear her. He was out cold.

Blossom covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes went wide with shock.

_After School..._

"I don't believe this, Buttercup!" yelled the Professor. School was out and the day was over. The girls had arrived back home and now the professor had just learned of the events of the day.

Buttercup was sitting on the couch with her arms crossed. The professor was standing infront of her.

"Your first day of high school and you have already been to the principle's office!"

"Come on, Professor! I didn't start the fight and he had it coming to him!"

The professor sighed and sat down on the couch. "That may be true, but just because you can beat someone up, doesn't mean you should," he said calmly.

Meanwhile Blossom and Bubbles were in their room overhearing the conversation, praying that their sister would wise up.

* * *

Brick and his brothers were on the bus and heading towards Townsville Beach. They could not fly or they would easily be recognized by the citizens of Townsville before the fight with the monster started. They all occupied the far back seat with Brick in the middle, Butch to his left, and Boomer to his right.

"I can't believe you, Brick. You sold me into slavery," pouted Boomer, who sat with his arms crossed and stared angrily straight forward.

Brick knew that Boomer didn't want to date Princess. She was incredibly spoiled and would obviously make a very demanding and high maintenance girlfriend, something Brick himself shuddered at the idea of dating.

"It's a sacrifice that will benefit the team. Princess has unlimited resources that we need; and it's not just the cash. She also knows the school and the students better so she's an excellent source of the latest information and gossip in the school, an advantage we need." He almost felt like a girl after saying that. The game of popularity was not for men he thought.

"Relax, bro. You just have to hang around her at lunch, take her to all the school events, and buy her flowers and junk like that," reassured Butch.

Boomer winced at the thought.

"What's even funnier is that _she_ is the one giving _you_ money to buy _her_ stuff," said Butch as he let out a chuckle.

Brick, on the other hand, felt sympathy for his brother. "Boomer, I will try my hardest to keep your so called 'relationship' with Princess as meaningless and painless as possible," Brick said.

"You promise?" he asked.

Brick nodded.

Suddenly his Blackberry went off. He once again snatched it up and knew that the message was from Him.

_"Change of plans. There will not be a monster attack yet. I will move that to tomorrow. I have found the next piece for you and I want you to grab it tonight. Meanwhile, hurry home. I picked you up some Jack in the Box while you were gone!"_

Brick cocked an eyebrow. "Boys, change of plans," he said with a smirk.

* * *

**Red Crown:** The more reviews I get the sooner I update. So review or I will send Brick after you! Muhahahahahahahah! 


	4. Black Hole

CHAPTER FOUR: **_"Black Hole"_**

The sun was setting. Brick checked his watch; it read 6:38 P.M.

The traffic rush had finally begun. People were getting off work and racing to get home as soon as possible. The lights of Townsville began to illuminate the streets.

Walking down the busy metropolis of Townsville, the RowdyRuff Boys finally reached their destination. They stopped at a jewelry store that was on the corner of a street right next to a Burger King.

"This is where Him said it would be. Someone dug it up and decided to sell it in the shop. It's also on sale," said Brick. He turned to his brothers. "Thanks to Princess' money, this is a one man job. Boys, you can go into the Burger King and get something to eat. I'll go in and buy the piece."

Butch and Boomer nodded and headed into the Burger King while Brick entered the jewelry store.

The entire inside of the store was white with a black carpet. Wall to wall was decorated with expensive jewelry held in protective glass cases that had locks over them. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, gold, and silver were well advertised. He began searching the precious rocks around the store to see if he could find what his master was looking for.

A young, female store clerk approached him. "May I help you, sir?" she asked.

Brick had a picture of the piece that Him had drawn by hand and uploaded onto his Blackberry. He took out his cell and opened the picture. "I was told I could find this here," he said, showing her the drawing.

The drawing was lousy, but the clerk seemed to recognize it. "Follow me, please" she said.

She led him to the near back of the store to a tall glass case with a rather large lock on it. Inside was exactly what Brick was looking for: a silver ring with a spherical sapphire jewel that was suspended in the middle by unseen forces. The price listed was $5,000.

"Thank you, ma'am. I'll take it," he said.

The woman looked shocked. "Sir, it's five thousand dollars," she said, obviously unsure if he had the money.

"My father is a rich collector and he sent me down here to buy it. I have the money in cash with me."

Brick reached into a pocket on the inside of his jacket and pulled out $5,000 worth in $100 dollar bills. The woman seemed surprised. "Well, I'm sorry, sir. Someone has already purchased it. It's scheduled to be shipped tomorrow."

For a second Brick was thinking about offering the woman a bribe, but he decided that it was too risky. If she refused then she might call the police and warn them of a suspicious character entering the store, which would in turn increase the security at the store and make breaking into it a lot more difficult than it needed to be, if he needed to do it. "Who purchased it?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. It would go against our privacy policy, sir."

Brick stuffed the money back in his jacket. "Thank you for your help, ma'am," he said politely.

The red ruff began to pretend to wonder aimlessly around the store; however, he was actually memorizing where he saw security cameras and defensive systems.

He then headed outside and went over to the Burger King to find his brothers sitting at a table, each with several burgers in front of them. The red ruff bought three cheese burgers and sat down with his brothers.

"Where's the rock?" asked the green ruff.

"Someone's already got it waxed. Looks like we'll need to get it the old fashion way," he replied.

"If we get seen this time, Him's going to blow his top," said Boomer.

"Thank you, Dr. Obvious," Butch replied sarcastically.

_Five and a half hours later..._

Brick checked his watch. It read 12:35 A.M.; now it was time to make his move.

He and his brothers were clad in black. Their sacks were loaded with their equipment. Their night vision goggles had been pushed up on their foreheads. They stood on the roof of a tall sky scraper. The sky was clear and the moon was bright and almost full. Stars and planets littered the heavens. It was a rather cool night. Down below was the corner street where the jewelry store was.

They jumped down, falling several hundred feet before slowly descending on top of the store. An air duct on top of the roof was their target. Boomer quickly reached into his sack and pulled out some power tools to remove the grill of the duct from its place. Below was a pitch black, square hole that led to the air vents of the building.

The three dawned their night vision goggles and crawled inside.

Brick led the way. He weaved through the narrow vent passages to where he thought the jewel was closest. Finally he looked down through an exhaust of the vent that led into the store.

The store was dark since all the lights had been turned off. Just like the museum, it was only lit with moonlight that entered from the windows along the wall. The place appeared deserted, but he knew appearances could be deceiving so he kept his guard up.

He saw the jewel in its glass, locked case. A mere vent grill separated his way to the floor. He checked the vent for screws or latches, but then realized that it was screwed to the vents from the outside. Using brute force, he ripped the grill out of place.

He reached into his sack and pulled out the spray can. He aimed it at his drop zone and sprayed a cloud of mist into the area. Surprisingly, there were no lasers. He then peeked his head out of the vent and made his eyes level with the ceiling scanning for cameras. There were two, mounted in black bulbs on the ceiling surface. He took them both out with his laser vision.

With that done, he then dropped out of the vent and landed on the floor. The walls of the store were white and the floor itself was black, as was his outfit; so once he hit the ground he laid flat on his stomach in a prone position to blend in with the floor.

The floor smelled like it was new and the carpet felt like something common in an office complex. There was another smell that was less pleasant, but then he discovered that his outfit was covered in dust and cobwebs from crawling through the vent shafts. It was extremely dusty in the vents.

Not too long after he went prone he heard Boomer land to his side and Butch land behind him. They both went prone as well.

The red ruff began to crawl along the floor in classic army fashion towards the case, spraying mist in his path to reveal any lasers. His brothers soon followed.

To their surprise the jewelry store had fewer defenses than the museum did. However, unknown to them a security camera disguised as a jewelry box was watching them from behind.

Inside of the security monitor room sat a very nervous guard with his name tag designating him as Joe Frankie. He saw three thieves inside his store and attempting to steal a certain item. He instantly knew he had three options.

The first was to take care of the job himself. He had a revolver at his side, but he was outnumbered and in most cases when jewelry stores were robbed, the perpetrators were heavily armed. Joe immediately ruled that option out.

The second was to call the police, who could be there in seventeen minutes. By then the robbers might have been gone and already taken a good several hundred thousand dollars worth of property.

The third option was to call the mayor, who was strangely up late at night playing video games, and tell him to call the PowerPuff Girls, who could be anywhere in Townsville in under a minute.

Joe watched the camera footage of the figures clad in black. As one of them began to pick the lock to a certain jewelry case, the choice became obvious. He got on the phone and dialed the mayor's office.

* * *

_The cackle of fire was the only thing audible. She could smell something burning. _

_Blossom opened her eyes and found herself on the floor of her home; only it wasn't home. It was an empty shell of what once was. Flames coated the walls and illuminated the walls with a bright orange light. There was not one thing in the house that was not broken. Smoke from the flames began to fill the inside._

_She stood on her feet and began to wonder who had done this and, more importantly, where was her family._

_She bolted up the stairs to her room and kicked down the door. The force of her kick knocked the door down and shattered it into a dozen fiery pieces. _

_Blossom had no fear of the flames since they could not harm her Chemical X-saturated body. _

_She then began a frantic search for her sisters, flipping over the beds, tearing down the closet doors, and searching the bathroom. They weren't anywhere in the room._

_Just then a chunk of the ceiling broke off and fell to the ground. It didn't take a genius to know that her house was beginning to collapse._

_She then zoomed down stairs and punched through the door to the lab, only to find it in the same condition as the rest of the house. The heroine desperately searched for her father, overturning nearly ever piece of broken, burning lab equipment. Her search turned up nothing._

_Another chunk of roof fell to the ground. The walls let out a groan as they began to give way. By this time Blossom was convinced that her family wasn't in the house, which meant that there was no point in remaining inside. _

_She launched straight upward and punched through the roof as the house gave way. However, instead of meeting the dark night sky as she thought she would, the pink puff entered a black void that appeared to be endless. She looked back towards her house and saw that it was being sucked away into what appeared to be a black hole._

_Blossom tried to fly away, but the black hole suddenly took hold of her and pulled her down into it. _

_She felt helpless as she was pulled into the swirling, dark vortex. Panic swept through her mind and fear took hold of her. Desperation began to set in. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out._

_She looked down towards the bottom of the black hole and saw a large, metallic human skull with long, pointy teeth and angry eye sockets. It had a ram's set of horns at the sides of its head and on its top were the horns of a gazelle. The mouth opened wide, eagerly anticipating to devour her._

_Blossom fought harder, trying to fly away, but the effort was futile. The skull's mouth was sucking her in quickly. It was not long before she was subdued by it and fell into the mouth head first. Razor sharp teeth clamped down on her waist and left arm like lightning and tore through her flesh._

Blossom sat up straight in her bed, once again sweating cold and breathing heavily. She realized that her mouth was still open from her failed attempt to scream and quickly shut it. Her heart was beating like a machine gun. Her waist and left arm were completely numb.

She looked down on the other two beds and found that her sisters were still peacefully asleep. The pink puff was glad that she did not wake them this time.

The teenage super heroine climbed out of bed, still in her PJ's, and unlocked the window. She flew outside and landed on top of the roof before sitting down and curling up into a ball.

The night sky was clear. It was fairly cool outside, yet the roof itself was pleasantly warm. A gentle breeze brushed her skin. Townsville far off in the distance was dimly lit. Moonlight was her only source of illumination. The heavens were decorated with twinkling stars and planets. It appeared as if the sky had been removed and she now had a window to look freely into deep space that revealed the unsurpassed beauty and design in the universe.

Blossom had really been shaken up by that nightmare. She needed time to calm her nerves. The pink puff knew that she was most likely just suffering from the memories that came from doing battle with evil. However, what struck her the most was the fear that pulsed through her. Even when Him had invaded her dreams she had never been so afraid.

She needed time to clear her thoughts and bring herself to peace. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled. The fresh air of Townsville soothing. The chaos swarming in her mind was slowly brought to rest. 

Just then her super hearing picked up the hotline ringing down in her room. A leader persona that had been ingrained in her since she was little took her over once more. She bolted back inside and picked up the phone as quickly and silently as she could, careful not to wake her sisters. The lead PowerPuff Girl only wanted to wake them up if she needed them.

It was late, she thought. Why on earth was the mayor calling only a little after midnight? All too soon, the question didn't matter to her. She was up already anyway.

"What is it mayor?" she whispered.

"Blossom, there's a robbery in progress at the Townsville Jewelry store! Three thieves are trying to steel precious jewelry! Hurry, over there and stop it!" he said.

"I'm on it," she replied.

Heading over to the triple bunk bed that held her sisters as they rested, Blossom began to decide if she should wake them both up. There were only three thieves, but experience told her that in Townsville anything could happen. She decided to wake up only Bubbles.

The super charged teenager then went over to the second bunk and shook Bubbles shoulder gently in an attempt to wake her up.

Her sister's eyes slowly opened in response. "What is it, Blossom?" she asked in a sleepy voice.

"There is a robbery at the Townsville Jewelry store. We need to go stop it right now. It might even be the same guys that broke into the museum," she told her sister.

Bubbles sat up straight and rubbed her eyes. "Shouldn't we wake up Buttercup?"

"She's grounded remember. Besides, there are only three of them. This should be a cake walk," she replied.

With that, the two puffs changed into their clothes and launched out the window towards the jewelry store in the middle of the night.

* * *

**Red Crown:** Please Review. 


	5. No Witnesses

CHAPTER FIVE: **_"No Witnesses"_**

This was almost too easy, the leader of the RowdyRuff Boys thought to himself.

Butch picked the lock effortlessly and Boomer reached in to grab the ringed jewel. The blue ruff stuffed it in his sack.

Brick, then remembered that the security cameras probably caught him inside the store when he walked in during the afternoon. They most likely got him trying to buy the jewel in the store earlier, which meant that if there was ever an investigation, he would turn up as one of the suspects.

He briefly lifted his night vision goggles to switch to his natural X-ray vision and scan the room. To his surprise there was a room inside the store that packed a lot of security monitors and recording equipment. Also, there was a person inside.

"Butch, see that door in the corner?" he told his brother, his voice synthesizer in his ski mask, kept his voice from being distinguishable.

Butch immediately looked where he was pointing and nodded.

"Check it out."

"Brick, I don't want to be here any longer than we need to be," said Boomer.

"Neither do I, but I got this gut feeling," replied his leader.

Boomer did not question any further. He and Butch had learned to trust their leader's gut. It had never been wrong in the past.

Just as he was ordered, Butch stealthily proceeded towards the room.

Brick remained silent and calm as he watched his brother. It was then that his keen eyes saw something move out of the corner of his field of vision. He centered his eyes on the movement and discovered a jewelry box with what appeared to be a hole cut into it. He made his eyes focus on the hole and realized that it was not a hole at all, but a camera lens. When the lens was focusing on him it had to shift a little and reflected some light in his eye, which gave away its position.

The red ruff mumbled a curse word. "Boys, we've been spotted," he said. "Butch, kick down the door."

The green ruff bolted over to the room with the monitors and kicked down the door. He had come to find a guard with a name tag that read "Joe Frankie" and in front of him were several monitors, one of which displayed an image of his brothers.

Watching from behind, Brick saw the guard. This man had become a witness and Brick knew that there could be no witnesses. There was only one order he needed to issue to Butch to remedy the situation: "Kill him."

Joe Frankie drew his revolver and took aimed at the green ruff, but the Chemical-X charged super villain was faster. He bolted over to the guard and struck him in the gut with enough force to make him slam against the wall. The gun went off on impact. Joe slowly slumped forward falling on his knees, then his face. The villain lifted his foot and hammered it down on the guard's neck. There were several satisfying cracks from a cluster of bones being shattered.

Cold, green eyes showed no remorse. Once the green ruff was confident Joe was dead he then turned to his leader.

Brick entered the room and started ejecting the tapes and other recordings of all the cameras in the building. He stuffed the evidence in his sack. Right before he left he shut off the defense systems and the alarm.

Butch picked up the body. He would need to hide it.

With that done the boys went out through the front door. The alarms were useless to alert anyone to their exit.

Brick then turned to Butch. "Get rid of him," he said.

Butch nodded and flew off in the direction of the ocean.

Just as Boomer and Brick were about to fly away they heard two voices that startled them.

"Not so fast, bad guys!"

Just as Brick looked towards where the voice had come from, he felt the force of a fist colliding with his face. He was knocked flying into the street and struck the ground. Boomer was struck too and dropped his sack with the jewel in it.

Blossom and Bubbles landed on the street, confident that their blows had put the thieves out of commission. The two super heroines noticed that they were clad in black and that their faces were covered in ski masks and their eyes hidden by night vision goggles. They could not recognize them.

Bubbles went over to the sack that lay on the ground. She picked it up and reached inside to pull out a certain silver ring with a sapphire jewel suspended in the center. "Blossom, I found what they were trying to steal!" she said and held it up.

"Looks like you boys need a lesson on respecting other people's property," said Blossom as she put her hands on her hips.

Brick and Boomer looked at their attackers and were surprised. They had not seen the PowerPuff Girls in nine years; however, they were still recognizable. The two individuals standing before them were undoubtedly the same that they had faced when they were little. They never expected them to be up at night, much less fighting crime at the hour.

At the mere sight of them, Brick's heart burned with a desire for revenge against them. In a split moment he recalled the humiliation and the horror that they had done to him when they were little. After nine years, this was his chance to finally make them pay. However, he then remembered that the ringed jewel took top priority. He regained his footing in less than a second and stood ready to fight.

"Well, if it isn't the PowerPuff Girls," said Brick, his voice synthesizer disguising his real voice. "I couldn't be less afraid," he said with a smirk.

"If I have to pound fear into you, then I have no problem with that," replied Blossom.

"Bring it on," replied the thief.

He took a glance towards his brother.

He could not discern what was going on in Boomer's mind. Boomer, for some reason, almost didn't seem ready to fight. He stood up and looked to his leader, awaiting orders.

"Attack pattern Delta-Uniform-X-Ray." Brick said. Delta, Uniform, and X-Ray were letters of the military alphabet, D, U, and X to be specific. DUX meant "Don't Use chemical X powers." The use of their special powers would give them away and Brick did not want the girls to recognize them just yet. They would now fight with only speed and strength. "Get the sack," Brick told him before lunging toward Blossom.

Blossom didn't expect him to be as fast as he was. Brick caught her off guard and landed three lightning quick punches that all hit home. He finished his combo with a spin kick that went straight to her head and sent her flying across the street into a subway.

"Blossom!" shouted Bubbles in concern for her sister.

This left a good enough distraction for Boomer to charge towards her and thrust his heel into her stomach. She went flying several feet and careened into a concrete street lamp. The lamp broke in two on impact. She had lost her grip on the sack and the jewel in the process. Boomer quickly dashed to the sack and jewel.

"Flash!" the blue ruff heard his brother say. This was code for him to reach into his sack and pull out a pair of thick, dark shades and Bose sound reduction head phones and put them on. He saw his leader do the same.

Once that was finished, Brick reached into his sack and pulled out a flash bang grenade. Flash bang grenades were designed to stun victims with a blinding flash and a loud, violent sound that was deafening to the ears. With the PowerPuff Girls' super sensitive sight and hearing it would have an extremely devastating effect. He pulled the pin and the six second fuse was set.

Just as Brick had calculated in his mind, he pulled it right at the same time that Blossom recovered from his assault and was charging back towards him for a counter strike.

He threw the grenade up in the air and it exploded at exactly the right time he wanted it to. A blinding white flash lit up the entire street accompanied by a thunderous clap.

Blossom and Bubbles were instantly blind and deaf. Brick and Boomer, on the other hand, had their eyes shielded by the shades and their ears kept safe with the Bose headphones.

With Blossom and Bubbles completely disoriented, the two ruffs flew away at a lightning quick speed and made their escape.

* * *

Butch flew out above the ocean. Without a second thought, he dropped Joe Frankie into the water and then turned to head back towards the warehouse that he and his brothers were occupying. He expected to meet his brothers there.

What he didn't know was that a fishing boat would arrive at that exact same spot and spread its net only ten minutes later.

When the sailor tried to pull his net back out of the water to see what he had caught he was surprised to find he had fished up a man. He was overcome with shock and immediately pulled the man aboard. The first thing he did was check for a pulse. To his surprise, he found one.

* * *

_The next day..._

Blossom and Bubbles climbed out of bed groggily. They both had a few bruises from the small skirmish last night with the two thieves.

Blossom felt horrible for letting the thieves get away. It was their first mission in several months and she blew it. She realized that she got too cocky and was hit by what she didn't expect. She purposed it in herself to never make the same mistake again.

"That's funny," Blossom thought. "Didn't the mayor say there were three thieves?" She remembered that the mayor was never known for being the sharpest tool in the woodshed. Numbers were not his strong suit and she figured he most likely miscounted.

She and Bubbles freshened up and got ready for school. They then went down stairs to find Buttercup already up and finishing her breakfast.

Buttercup noticed her sisters' condition immediately. "What happened to you two? You look like you got in a brawl with Fuzzy," she said.

Blossom knew that she would be angry if she told her the truth, but she decided that telling her sister a lie would only make things worse. So she quickly explained the events that occurred last night.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" the green puff shouted. "There was finally some action and you held out on me!"

"You know you're grounded, Buttercup. I would be disobeying the professor to take you along with us," Blossom calmly replied.

Buttercup was fuming. The frustration in her mounted like a volcano and erupted. She stormed out the door and left in advance toward school without her sisters.

"Do you think we were too hard on her for not waking her up?" asked Bubbles. She hated to see her sisters angry at each other.

"You know how Buttercup is. She just needs to blow off some steam," replied Blossom. She hoped she was right. Sometimes it was hard to do the right thing. "Anyway, did you catch a glimpse of what they were trying to steal last night?"

"What?" loudly asked Bubbles, who was still slightly deaf from the flash bang grenade. Her hearing was slowly returning.

"I said, 'did you catch a glimpse of what they were trying to steal last night?'" repeated Blossom, louder this time.

"Yes! I even drew a picture of it," she cheerfully replied and pulled out a piece of paper with a drawing of the object on it.

Bubble's drawing skills had dramatically improved since she was a little girl. On top of her amazing talents as an artist she also had a new power: photographic memory. Blossom had no doubt that the drawing looked exactly like the tiny object that they had seen the thieves with.

"We need to find out what is so special about this ringed jewel. There were several other pieces of jewelry in the store that were ten times the value of that single ring. Why would the thieves only go for this specific one?" said Blossom.

The police were still investigating the crime scene and would email her a report so Blossom knew that she would just need to wait for more answers to arrive.

* * *

**Red Crown:** I hope you enjoyed the chapter. For those of you that love Buttercup and Butch, I have a feeling that you will very much like the next chapter. Please Review. Reviews are the fuel that power my writing engines and bring you chapters.

**_Okay, Skitzophrenick, Your next easter basket clue is right under the key board!_**


	6. Savior?

CHAPTER SIX: _**"Savior?"**_

The RowdyRuff Boys dressed themselves up and got ready for school. They had already given Him the ringed jewel that they had taken last night. However, they kept the part about being seen by the security guard a secret. They felt that Him did not need to know about that until there was something else to report.

They could not fly to school or they would be recognized by the citizens of Townsville. Riding the school bus there was too risky since the PowerPuff Girls could have been riding it as well. Because of this, Brick used Princess' money to by a car. It was a simple, silver Nissan Altima, which would be nonconspicuous and avoid drawing attention to them, just as he had wanted. It was parked in the loading dock station of the warehouse, where ships used to pull up beside to unload their cargo.

However, Butch was not so simple. He wanted his own vehicle and after much arguing eventually Brick let him buy a black Harley Davidson motorcycle. It came with a black helmet that had a darkly tinted visor, a black leather jacket, and a pair of black biker boots.

"Brick, I'm telling you that we would have been alright with that other car that was two blocks down the street," said Boomer.

"It was a jet black Lamborgini Diablo, Boomer. We would have our cover blown the moment we showed up at school, dimwit," replied Brick as he got in the driver's seat and pocketed his forged driver's license. Even if he was pulled over he doubted the Townsville police would be able to discern that his driver's license was a fake. The policemen of Townsville were by far the most incompetent idiots he had ever come into to contact with.

"Yeah, but we would have had it blown _with style_," the blue ruff fired back as he took the passenger seat.

Brick put the key in the ignition and started the engine.

"Bro, do you even know how to drive a car? We're only fourteen." said Boomer.

"Relax, Boomer. With my advanced intellect this should be as easy as coloring inside the lines," confidently replied the leader.

"You got it in the wrong gear, dude," said the blue ruff.

"Shut up, Boomer. I'm trying to concentrate," said Brick.

Boomer immediately closed his mouth, put on his seat belt, and sat up straight.

Brick hit the gas; however, he had ignored his brother's concern. The gear was in reverse and the car went backwards right into the ship loading dock, off the ramp, and plunged into the water.

There was a long silence inside the car as it floated with the waves. Boomer opened his mouth to speak.

"Don't you say a word," calmly snapped his leader.

Boomer quickly shut his mouth. In mere seconds the sound off running water could be heard as the vehicle began to fill up with ocean water. The two ruffs lifted the car out of the ocean and shook the water out.

Butch silently got on his motorcycle, wearing his biker gear with the leather jacket over his camouflage one. "That is why I got a bike," he thought to himself as he watched his brothers. His green eyes vanished behind a darkly visor before he rocketed off towards school on his own.

* * *

"Stupid goodie-two shoes Blossom," Buttercup mumbled to herself as she walked to school, repeatedly kicking an empty soda can in her path.

Kicking butt was a distinct part of her personality. If that part was not allowed to get out she didn't know what she would do. She continued on her way to school.

_Meanwhile in the shadows nearby..._

Four pairs of eyes plus an extra large eye gazed at the lone chemical X charged teenager.

"Hey, look. It's Buttercup," said one.

"Yeah, Ace. Sssssssssso whatsssss do we do with hersssss?" said another with a slimy voice.

"Daaaaa we could play ball with her," said another.

"Phabo plplplplplplplplplplpl burrup," came the seemingly senseless babble of one of them.

"Good idea, Grubber. Let's get to the construction yard and head her off," said the one called Ace.

_Meanwhile with Buttercup..._

Walking along the cement sidewalk, the green puff continued her way toward school and passed a construction yard.

"Maybe, Blossom was right. It is my fault that I am grounded and she was just trying to fight crime without disobeying the professor," she had settled in her head to what she thought was a reasonable conclusion.

"Help! Help! I'm being robbed! Somebody help!," shouted a young woman's voice.

Buttercup's heart jumped with joy at the sound of distress. "Yes!" she shouted as she took off toward the voice.

She followed the cries down an ally and found an odd looking lady with green skin being held at knife point by none other than Ace of the Gang Green Gang. Surprisingly, Ace hadn't aged much over the years and still looked relatively the same as when she had fought him as a little girl.

"Don't worry, ma'am! I'll fix your little problem!" she yelled.

Ace turned around and in an almost overly dramatic manner said, "Oh no! It's a Power Puff Girl! Whatever will I do!"

Buttercup was just about to smash her fist clean into Ace's face, but something didn't feel right. She suddenly noticed that her shadow was growing and she was suddenly in shade. It was still morning and the sun was at an angle so Buttercup turned her head toward the blockage only to find that it was a wrecking ball swinging toward her at high speed. It slammed against her head and knocked her into the construction yard. She landed hard and skidded through dirt and concrete before finally slamming into a pile of steel beams that stopped her cold, the steel ringing from the impact.

Groggily, she slowly regained her footing. Her eyes followed the wrecking ball's chain to the vehicle that swung it and found non-other than Snake manning it. He hadn't aged much either. The green puff felt a sudden, crushing force slam her back down into the ground. Snake had dropped the wrecking ball on top of her.

"Quick, tie her up, Big Billy," came the familiar Spanish accent of Little Arturo.

She felt the ball lift off of her. Buttercup was too disoriented to see Big Billy grab one of the large steel beams and, with his incredible strength, he bended the beam around her body and effectively restrained her.

"You're getting slow, Buttercup. Lack of crime, making you slack?" taunted Arturo.

Buttercup's vision was blurry. Her head was still reeling from the blows she took. Her body was throbbing with pain and the beam felt too tight around her. When her sight came back into focus she discovered that she was surrounded by the Gang Green Gang and they all remarkably looked the same as they always had.

"Uh oh," she thought to herself.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

Butch continued his route to school. He longed to fly. He missed the speed, but the bike was not a bad form of transportation. At least it had some adrenaline that came with it, unlike the bus. He was almost there. He only had to pass the construction yard and he would arrive at the school parking lot. However, as he was passing the yard he decided to glance in an opening near the fence, wondering if he could find a nice secluded spot to practice his boxing. To his surprise he saw a strangely familiar girl wearing black and green who was at the mercy of non-other than the Gang Green Gang. He recognized her as the irriating green PowerPuff Girl.

He immediately stopped his bike and pulled over. He thought Brick might want to know about it.

Meanwhile…

Brick ran another red light and made another ridiculously sharp turn at a ridiculous speed in a ridiculously packed intersection.

"Brick, slow down!" shouted Boomer.

"I'm just trying to get a feel for driving," he said calmly. "Relax. Take a nap."

"Watch out for the old lady!"

Brick swerved around an old lady crossing an intersection and missed her by inches. The sound of tires screeching on the street and dust filled the air. The lady continued on and didn't even notice her close call with death, typical of a citizen of Townsville.

Boomer looked at his leader and was amazed at his calm demeanor even though he was driving like a maniac.

Brick immediately began to slow down and drive like a normal law abiding person when he neared the school, careful not to draw any attention to himself.

"You know, Boomer, I like to drive," Brick said very calmly as if nothing drastic had happened. He looked over at Boomer just in time to watch him stick his head out the window and expel his breakfast.

The lead ruff calmly waited at the red light. As he did so Brick began to replay the fight last night in his mind and a question arose. "What were you thinking about when the PowerPuff Girls appeared?"

"I don't know," replied Boomer.

"I saw you hesitate to fight. What made you slow down?"

The blue ruff paused for a moment. The truth was that when he saw Bubbles he was absolutely stunned. She was extremely beautiful. The first second he saw her he almost completely forgot about the incidents when they had been kids. It seemed like the old grudges he held against them were of little concern anymore. He really didn't want to hurt her. There was no way he was going to tell his brother that because he feared of being thought of as weak.

"I was just really surprised to see them. I didn't expect to wind up in a fight with them so soon," he answered.

"Good. For a second I thought you were turning into a sissy," Brick replied.

Suddenly the red ruff's black berry went off and he picked it up. "What's up?" he asked.

"Hey, I think you should know about this," came Butch's voice. "Buttercup is at the construction yard and the Gang Green Gang got her," he said.

"Why should I care?"

"Well, It looks like they're about to kill her," he said.

Brick knew why Butch called about this and it was a good reason. Him had specifically stated that he wanted the pleasure of destroying the PowerPuff Girls. If they had let that pleasure go to anyone else, then Him might be displeased. "Good going, Butch," Brick said. "I know you're going to hate me for this, but you need to stop the Gang."

There was a brief pause on the other end. "Is that really necessary?" he replied with attitude in his voice.

Brick was slightly surprised. Butch was rarely one to question orders. He usually preferred to leave the thinking to others and expected everyone to leave him alone to use his fists. Maybe he just didn't want to save his mortal enemy.

"Butch, do it. That's an order. And try to see if you can keep her from recognizing you," he stated.

"Got it," came the response.

"And don't kill any of them," said Brick. "You are in broad daylight remember."

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

"Hey, Ace, what should we do with her now that we have her?" asked Big Billy.

Snake immediately jumped in. "We should kill her. The wrecking ball should do the trickssssssss," he said.

Ace had different plans in mind. "I think we should have a little fun with her first. She's growing up to be quite a babe if you get what I mean," replied Ace with a perverse smile.

Buttercup's eyes went wide and a sensation of fear pulsed through her.

"Wha… What are you gonna do to me?" she asked.

Before they could give an answer they suddenly heard the sound of a motor bike fill the air. The Gang Green Gang all looked in the direction it was coming from and saw a biker with a black helmet and a darkly tinted visor racing toward them at an amazing speed. At the last second before impact the biker popped up the front wheel and it smashed right into Ace's face. He plowed right over the leader of the gang and continued on. The mysterious rider took a crazy left turn and skidded to a halt. Eyes behind the darkly tinted visor glared at the gang.

Ace somehow managed to get up from the blow, holding his bruised face. "You're going to pay for that you freak!" he angrily shouted as he pulled out a switchblade.

The rider didn't say anything. He just revved the engine several times and let the bike's deep, fearsome roar display its power.

The green men all charged at him. However, right before they were about to make contact the biker then hit the gas and twisted the back of his bike towards them. The back wheel skidded along the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust that blinded the gang. He shot forward and drove in a wide curve before finally twisting back into the dust cloud he had kicked up.

"Whoa… cool," said Buttercup with awe as she watched the anonymous figure disappear into the cloud.

Suddenly she heard the sounds of an ugly fight. The members of the Gang Green Gang gave several howls of pain as the sound of fists pounding flesh radiated throughout the yard. When the dust cloud settled she saw the biker standing over the gang, all of which had been heavily beaten and knocked unconscious. A glint of sunlight reflected beautifully off the visor into Buttercup's eyes.

He then started walking towards her. With great strength he unraveled the steel beam from the green puff's body and freed her. The strong individual extended a hand to help her up. She took the hand and a strange feeling came over her. An electric jolt shot through her hand at the contact. She felt like she had butterflies swarming around in her stomach. Her knees went weak and she relied almost completely on the strength of the biker to pull her to her feet. Her face slowly started to turn a shade of red. Her whole body felt slightly lighter, despite the fact that she had been hit by a wrecking ball twice. For some reason she felt the urge to fix her hair as best she could and did so.

"Um… thanks," she said scrambling for words.

He didn't say anything, just stared back at her. "She's actually kind of good-looking," he thought to himself.

Suddenly his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw that it was a text message from Brick. _"What's taking you so long?"_ it read.

"But, she's not worth disobeying Brick," he thought again. Butch realized that he needed to get away and didn't want her to follow him. The green ruff slammed his fist into her stomach.

The blow was enough to knock the wind out of her and made her collapse back on the ground. This allowed the ruffian enough time to get back on his bike, hit the throttle, and speed away. She never knew who he was.

"You jerk!" Buttercup shouted at his back.

**Red Crown:** Sorry it took so long for me to update. I have been bogged down with college and it has been driving me nuts. Please Review. It motivates me to write and the next chapter will come sooner if you do.


	7. Rick Jones

**Red Crown:** Thank you for the reviews. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

* * *

CHAPTER SEVEN: _**"Rick Jones"**_

Blossom entered her first period English class with all the required materials and exactly five minutes before class started as she had usually done. She sat down and put her English school book upon the desk, then looked at the seat in the far corner of the room that belonged to Buttercup.

"That's strange. Buttercup may hate school, but she always shows up to class around this time," she said thinking out loud.

"You don't think she's in any kind of trouble do you, Bloss," said Bubbles as she took her seat next to the lead Puff.

"She's tough. She can handle trouble," she said calmly.

Four minutes passed and finally Buttercup walked through the doors. Her sisters were shocked at her appearance. She was coated from head to foot in dirt and gravel. Her head had a wound on it and a small trickle of blood could be seen on her hair line. Her waist was heavily bruised and her back looked like it had been beaten.

"What happened!" her sisters exclaimed at the same time.

For a second she was about to answer, "the most wonderful thing ever," but she stopped herself. She didn't like the idea of her sisters knowing about the masked stranger on a bike who had saved her.

"I ran into the Gang Green Gang," she said casually. In her head she thought, "That's somewhat true."

"You did! Tell me exactly what happened at lunch," Blossom said.

* * *

Brick immediately began racing to his first period, fighting with every bit of his will the urge to fly. This was going to be his first full day of school and he had no intention of being late on the first day. School was something that he had looked forward to. He had plenty of time when he got there, but he didn't think parking would take so much time. He guessed if he had done it once, it would be easier the next time. He stood in the door way of the class and saw his worst nightmare: all three Power Puff Girls in his first class and his seat was right next to Blossom's.

He immediately jumped back out of the door way and put his back against the wall. "Crap! They're in there! How do I get out of this?" He thought. There was only seconds before the bell rang and he needed to think fast.

Just then an idea struck. He turned his hat forwards and put the hood of his jacket over his head. He looked in the window at his reflection for a quick check and realized that his crimson red eyes would easily give him away. He grabbed the sunglasses that he had used to shield his eyes from the flashbang grenade and put them on. It seemed to work. He was completely indistinguishable.

There was no more time. He entered the classroom right as the bell rang and took his seat. He avoided looking in the direction of the Power Puff Girls at all costs. No one seemed to pay him any attention.

The teacher turned around.

"Before we start class, I would like to announce that we have a new student who will be attending class with us," she began.

"Crap…" Brick whispered under his breath.

"Brick, please stand up and introduce yourself to the class," she said.

The PowerPuff Girls each gave a gasp.

"It can't be," said Blossom.

"They're not even supposed to be alive," replied Bubbles.

"Yeah, we kicked their lame carcasses to kingdom come nine years ago," said Buttercup.

Brick slowly got up and walked to the front of the class. His mind was on the verge of panic, but he somehow managed to keep calm and walked to the front. He quickly thought up a few good lies and his anxiety left him.

"That must be a mistake, my correct name is Rick," he calmly said. "Not to be confused with Brick, the evil and conniving, yet remarkably clever super villain that you three fought several years ago," he calmly said hoping that the class bought his lie.

The teacher looked at him curiously. "Do you have a last name, Rick? Your file only gives your first name."

"My last name is Jo…" He stopped himself. If he gave his real last name from his first creator Mojo Jojo, then he would have been in real trouble. "Jones," he stammered. "Yeah, that's my name. Rick Jones."

The three super heroines calmed down a bit, but eyed him suspiciously.

"Well, Rick, I don't allow sunglasses or a hood on in my class. Would you mind taking them off?" asked the teacher.

Brick quickly thought of another good set of lies.

"Ma'am, would you please make an exception for me? I have a terrible skin condition that just looks horribly ugly and I would feel a great deal more comfortable if I would be allowed to keep the rest of the students from seeing it," he calmly responded. His politeness and manners worked like a charm.

"Take off the glasses then."

"I am not allowed to since I just had my eyes dilated. Eye dilation is a medical procedure in which eye drops are placed into the eye and the pupil is opened greatly for medical reasons. If the patient does not shield his eyes, then large amounts of light would enter the pupil and burn the retina, causing permanent damage. Please forgive me for I will need to have the shades on for a few more days," he said as he quietly hoped that the teacher did not know that eye dilation in reality only lasted for eights hours maximum.

"Very well then. Please state to the class your favorite things to read."

Brick knew that the best way to tell a lie was to mix it in with as much of the truth as possible. So he started naming things off the top of his head that he liked for real.

"Shakespeare, the Art of War, Love and War, political non-fiction, and military non-fiction. I also like to read poetry in general," He said calmly.

Blossom cocked an eyebrow. "That's funny, those are my favorites too," she quietly said to no one in particular.

"How about hobbies? What do you usually do with your free time?" asked the teacher.

"I like to read and write. I love chess and strategy games. Anything that makes me think really," he replied.

"Me too," thought Blossom.

When the teacher had finished with him Brick took his seat, right next to his counterpart. Three minutes into the class a folded piece of paper flew from Blossom's direction and landed on his desk.

At first the red ruff panicked. "What did she do that for? She couldn't know who I am by now! It's impossible!" He thought. He picked up the piece of paper and calmed down when he recognized it as a note.

_Dear Rick,_

_I am honored to be in the same class with you and I must say that your tastes bear a striking resemblance to my own. Therefore, I think you would be an excellent addition to the Pokey Oaks High School Chess Club. Please circle one of the following for your answer:_

_Yes No_

_-Blossom Utonium_

The chess club actually seemed like an appealing idea to Brick. He loved chess and it would give him more opportunity to gather information on his foes and the students. His only concern was that the chess club was not the ideal place to achieve a popular status. However, the advantage outweighed his concern. He circled "yes" and handed it back to her.

It was then that he remembered that his brothers were no where near as good liars as he was and he began to worry about how their introductions were going. "I hope they don't mess this up."

Quickly he grabbed his Blackberry and began to text under his desk to his brothers some lies he thought up to use in case they were introduced. The piece of paper flew back in his direction and landed on his desk a moment later. It now had added on the bottom:

_"I am glad that you accepted my humble invitation. We will be meeting after school today in the main conference room in the building near the gym. Please be there by 3:15 PM. I look forward to seeing how you perform in chess."_

The red ruff cocked an eyebrow at the note.

* * *

_Meanwhile at Lunch..._

"And then BAM!!! The wrecking ball fell on top of me! I was out numbered and wounded so the odds were stacked against me. Big Billy wrapped me up in a beam of steel as if it were ball of yarn," Buttercup said as she dramatically recounted the story with hand motions and sound effects to her sisters and Emily, a new girl who had made friends with Bubbles. They were all sitting at the lunch table under the cherry blossom tree.

"Whoa! So how did you get out of it?" asked Bubbles.

Buttercup paused for a moment and Blossom noticed this.

"Uhhh... I broke free of the beam, beat up the gang, and got back to school on time," she quickly finished. "Looks like all my working out paid off."

"I suppose so," Blossom said suspiciously as she took a drink of her orange juice. Buttercup was a horrible liar.

"So girls, there is another subject that I would like to bring to your attention," said Bubbles.

"And what's that?" asked Blossom.

"Boys," she said cheerfully.

"Let's talk about something else," suggested Buttercup.

"Hey no fair. You got to tell your story and I want a turn too."

"Fine," Buttercup said and rolled her eyes.

"Okay so is there any boy that you have your eye on? No wait. Forget that question. What do you want in a boy? Buttercup, you first."

"Why me?"

"Come on just tell us. We're your sisters."

"Fine. I want a guy who is really good at sports and boxing and that I can test my skills against," she said.

"Buttercup, you'll never find a guy like that," said Blossom with skepticism. "You could kill every guy in school, and the whole world for that matter, with your bare hands."

"Whatever, Red," said the green puff as she crossed her arms.

"What about you, Emily?"

Emily was rather shy. She had a fair complexion and hazelnut brown eyes with long black hair. She typically wore the yellow variation of the school uniform and had a purple sweater with green and aqua flowers over it. Instead of dress shoes she had white and purple running shoes on her feet. Like Bubbles she was also obsessed with almost everything cute.

"Well, I like the kind that does not cheat and is really nice and opens the door for you and writes you all sorts of notes and stuff and..." she said and realized that she was beginning to trail off. "Yeah..." she said and quickly finished.

"What about you, Bloss?"

"I want a guy who I can have a good conversation and an intellectual exchange of ideas with, but I also want him to be honest, kind, a gentleman, patient, faithful, and just. Even able to keep me in line when I do wrong things," the lead puff confidently said.

"You'll never find a guy like that," Buttercup remarked.

"Shut up, BC." Blossom said flatly.

"My experience has led me to believe that all men are scumbags," sourly stated the green puff.

"You mean your one experience when you liked Ace when we were five?" Blossom asked. (I am referring the episode _Buttercrush_)

"Yes, and I'm still bitter about it," pouted Buttercup.

"You know, Buttercup, Ace wasn't the only guy in the world," said Bubbles.

"Stop trying to give me hope. I feel better having none," Buttercup said.

* * *

"I want Boomer to sit with me at The One," Princess said to the boys as the were in the cafeteria line.

Brick immediately objected. All the lunch tables were numbered. He knew that "The One" was refering to the number one lunch table, which was where all the cold hard plastic, popular kids sat at for lunch. The fact was that if Princess went around flaunting Boomer as her boyfriend, which she was eager to do, the Power Puff Girls would easily see him and their element of surprise would be wasted.

"Brick, I have been giving you lots of money," she began, "And I have not been able to be with Boomer in public at all since you got your cash. I want Boomer to sit with me at lunch_ today_!"

The leader of the Rowdy Ruff Boys caught his blond brother looking at him pleadingly out of the corner of his eye.

"If I remember correctly, Princess, your words were 'I'll help you with your plan if you help me with mine.' If Boomer gets seen in public, it would be very bad for our plans," replied Brick with calmness.

"Fine, tomorrow then," princess replied.

"How about next week," replied the leader.

"That's too late for my plans then!"

"What exactly is your plan?"

"I can't tell you," she said.

Brick crossed his arms, put his fist under his chin, and closed his eyes, assuming his thinking position. He opened his eyes once an idea came to his mind. "I think I can work this out. I'll make you a deal. Boomer will do anything you want him to do starting Thursday if in addition to the money you answer every question I ask you truthfully," he proposed.

"That's perfect. I agree and thanks," she said and grabbed her food and left to sit at the The One.

"Brick, that's in two days. Are you sure you can gather all the info you need in time?" asked Butch.

"I won't need to gather all of it. I have someone that already has and agreed to answer every question I ask," he said smirking as he watched Princess walk away. "This is going to be an easy week, boys."

"Not for me," said Boomer with a worried look on his face. "I feel like such a slave."

"Well, we got a lot of money off you so you can take pride in knowing that you're an _expensive_ slave," Butch joked.

"Gee, thanks," came the sarcastic reply.

"So how did your introductions go? Did they believe you?" the leader asked.

The blue ruff nodded. "I think they bought it," he said.

"What introduction?" asked Butch with a confused look on his face.

Brick cocked an eyebrow at his green-eyed brother. "You didn't go to class did you?"

"Nope."

"Good ol'Butch."

* * *

**Red Crown:** I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please Review. I am interested in your opinions and they do help fuel my writing engines to bring you the next chapter.


	8. Stalemate

CHAPTER EIGHT: _**"Stalemate"**_

"Boomer, could you get me some hot sauce? This burrito needs something to add some flavor," Butch asked.

They were all sitting on the roof of the school as they ate lunch to avoid being noticed by their enemies. "Sure," the blue ruff said before floating down on the side of the school that was opposite the lunch tables, which faced the school parking lot. No one saw him use his powers. He landed on the ground and made his way around the school to the cafeteria line. He decided that he should make his trip as quick as possible to avoid running into anybody that might recognize him.

He went into the cafeteria, acquired the hot sauce, and made his way back out. He just needed to go a little farther down the hall and around the corner to reach the place that was out of view of the lunch tables. He was walking under the second level of the school's main building, which was held up by a row of pillars. However, as he was on his way out he saw a glimpse of light blue out of the corner of his eye. He looked across the lunch tables and to his surprise he saw the Power Puff Girls sitting at their lunch table in conversation. Bubbles immediately caught his eye.

He went behind one of the pillars that helped prop up the second level of the school building and was right near the corner and began to gaze at her with fascination. Just then a gust of wind blew her long pig tails in the air and made her seem almost magical. The sun light struck her at the perfect angle. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

* * *

"So, Bubbles, what do you want in a boy?" asked Blossom.

"I want him to be sweet and kind and sensitive. He also needs to be very caring," she said and giggled. As she talked her gaze began to wander across the lunch tables. It was then that she noticed a pair of deep royal blue eyes that were staring right back at her.

Just then someone walked by and blocked her view for a brief moment. The next moment the eyes had disappeared. She stopped in mid sentence and began scanning the lunch tables looking around to see if she could find the blue eyes again.

"What is it Bubbles?" asked Emily, who noticed that she was looking elsewhere.

"Oh nothing," she said as she turned her attention back toward her sisters and friend.

* * *

Once she looked in his direction Boomer ducked away with his back up against the pillar. "She looked right at me!" he thought with excitement and fear that he may have been discovered.

Suddenly out of nowhere a hand with a red sleeve grabbed him by his collar and pulled him low and around the corner of the building. "What on earth do you think your doing?" asked Brick with a serious and angry look in his eyes, hands still gripping his collar. Butch was right behind him, a scowl on his face. They must have realized he was taking too long.

"I was uhh…" Boomer didn't have a good answer and he let out with the first thing that came out of his mind. "I was observing the enemy's position, sir!"

"I didn't tell you to do that. You could have given us away." Brick forcefully shoved him back and let go of his collar to help get his point across.

"And where's my hot sauce?" asked Butch.

Boomer handed him the small hot sauce packages. He felt like an idiot for almost jeopardizing Brick's plan. "Sorry, bro," he said and looked down at his feet.

"Just don't let it happen again," replied Brick. "You don't understand how risky it is to be lingering around here in the open. You might draw unwanted attention."

"What kind of attention?" asked the blue ruffian with curiosity.

Just then they heard a series of footsteps coming in their direction from around the corner. They boys tensed up immediately. Brick jerked his head in the direction of the suspects as they rounded the corner, wanting to make sure that they were not the Power Puff Girls. Luckily, it was several junior girls who happened to be passing by. They looked in the Rowdy Ruff Boys direction and shared eye contact for a brief moment. They looked away giggling and whispered to each other. What they didn't know was that the boys' super sensitive hearing picked up their whispers.

The Rowdy Ruff Boys heard each of their comments which consisted of:

"The blonde is really cute."

"I wish I was a freshman right now for that one in the red."

"The one in camies has sure got some muscles!"

Brick began massaging his temples to relieve some of the stress. "That's the kind of attention I'm talking about," Brick said as he motioned his head toward them. Ironically, being at school was bringing him the most stress he had ever felt in his life and it had nothing to do with the school work. He hoped he would feel a lot more relaxed when they didn't need to hide their identity any more.

"I'll be glad when I can get this plan underway," he said, thinking out loud.

* * *

_Meanwhile After School..._

Brick entered the fairly large conference room with his hat facing forward, his hood pulled over, and his glasses on just like he had appeared during his introduction into the class. Several long, narrow tables placed in rows sat along the room in perfect alignment. On each side of the tables were columns of seats and on the table between each pair of seats sat a chess board. The stage was set. There were about twenty-three other people in the room. Near the door was Blossom with a stack of cards. Each card had a name and a number.

She approached him and handed him a card. "Hello, Rick. I would like to welcome you to the chess club. You must have missed the introduction yesterday. We will just be skirmishing today. Here is your seat."

Brick took the card without even looking at her and sat at the seat with the same number. Each member had been given a number at random and their opponent would be the member that got the number of the seat across from theirs. He patiently waited and closed his eyes to allow himself to think. He didn't know exactly how long his lies would last. Sooner or later someone was going to discover that he had no skin condition and he had only bought himself two more days at best with his deal with Princess. He would just need to get a feel for this area as soon as possible. He had learned a lot about the students from his earlier periods and princess would still provide an excellent source of information. Maybe this club was exactly what he needed.

He could feel the table shake somewhat as his opponent sat in the seat across from his. The red ruff opened his eyes and discovered an incredibly attractive woman sitting across from him with long red hair and big, bright pink eyes. It took him a few moments to realize that it was Blossom who had sat across from him. "I really need to keep my thoughts in check," he thought to himself. Now that he thought about it he had not gotten a good look at Blossom the night they fought and he had not dared to look at her all day. She was very easy on the eyes.

Immediately Brick reinforced his thoughts of revenge with an iron will. Despite her improved appearance, this was still the same person who had killed him when he was little. His major adversary was only a table length away from him. He decided to play it cool as best he could and see just how much he could learn about her. Perhaps this chess game could serve as a measure of her strategy skills against his. Again, he would only lie when he needed to. The best lies were mixed in with as much truth as possible and he was an expert at deception.

"So, Miss Utonium" Brick started as he opened the chess set and began to put the black pieces in place, "I have heard a lot about you."

"And what exactly have you heard?" She asked looking at him curiously as she put the white pieces into place.

"Aside from the whole hero thing that you do I have heard that you are an amazing strategist. Think you can defeat me in my own element," he said cockily as he motioned to the chess board.

"For the record, it's _my_ element. And the answer is: there's only one way to find out," she said with an equally cocky tone and an aggressive smirk as she finished placing her pieces.

"You have first move," stated Brick.

"Thank you," she said politely as she made the opening move, starting with the pawn in front of her king forward two spaces.

"So are you in any other clubs?" He asked as he moved his first piece as well.

"A few. I love to read and write so I joined the Creative Writers Club or CWC as well. I would have joined sports, but our super powers have me and my sisters banned from anything physical. Except for Bubbles who can do cheerleading," she replied and made another carefully placed move.

"What's the CWC typically done?" He asked and moved anther pawn into place.

"It's essentially based on critical thinking and writing as well as reading and writing for fun. There is lots of poetry," she said as she made anther strategic move.

"That's interesting. It sounds right up my ally. I bet having those clubs on top of being a super hero would take up a lot of time," He replied and confidently moved his bishop into an offensive spot.

"Yeah. It does," she cocked an eyebrow at his move and then moved one of her pieces to block the bishop.

"I figured a girl as pretty as you would be dating some guy by now," he said casually and moved another piece.

Blossom blushed at the comment. "I'll take that as a complement, Rick. However, most guys simply don't want to date me," she replied as she went on the offensive and moved her rook into a position to attack his bishop.

"Why is that?" asked Brick as he blocked the move with his own rook.

"Sure they like the way I look, but they don't appreciate a girl with a brain. It's not popular for a girl to be smart. They mostly want some sweet, gullible, stupid one that they can trick into doing whatever they want and get her in the bed before they ditch her for the next target that comes their way. I am simply not one to be victimized like that," she said proudly and took his rook with hers.

"That's very admirable," he said and took the rook with his bishop, what he presumed was a fair trade.

"I'm glad you think so," she replied.

As the game progressed Brick was surprised by at her tactical knowledge and planning. It finally dwindled down to there only being four pieces left on the board: a white knight, a white king, a black rook, and a black king. Neither of them was able to get the other in checkmate and the game ended in a stalemate.

When the session ended Blossom stood up and shook his hand. "I had a good game with you, Rick. I must say that I am impressed by your skill. We'll need to play again sometime soon," she said.

"Likewise," Brick said as he returned the handshake.

He left heading towards his home in deep thought. Brick concluded that in terms of raw points he had been the victor since the rook was five points while the knight was three, so he did have more points on the board than Blossom did at the end of the game. However, the fact remained that he had failed to get her in checkmate and, in doing so, failed to win. "She's much better than I thought. I may need to come up with a back up plan just incase my original one fails against her," he thought to himself.

It was then that he remembered Him had told him that he wanted to have a staged monster attack on the city sometime in the afternoon. The leader of the Rowdy Ruff Boys quickly pulled out his BlackBerry and decided that he would send his boss a text in polite format and ask Him to change the attack to Thursday, when he knew that his identity would no longer be a secret. However, before he could even type the first letter he suddenly got a text message:

"_I am afraid I will need to move your monster attack to Thursday. I found another piece of my important item that I need you to collect immediately. Here is the general location. The rest I leave up to you. –Your Wonderful and Devious Boss"_

Brick saw that he also had three media messages that came with the text. He opened them up. The first one was a map with a large X placed on a certain location in Egypt. The second was an image of a Pyramid with a sphinx behind it that was missing an ear and had a large scar that went over its left eye. The last was a picture with an image of the jewel. It was like the others, only with a bronze ring and an emerald suspended in the center of it.

Brick closed his cell phone and called his brothers. For him and his Chemical X charged brothers a flight to Egypt was something that could be done over night. When one of his fellow ruffians picked up the first thing he said was "I hope you like Egyptian food."

* * *

**Red Crown:** I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter. Thank you for the reviews. I love hearing your opinions. Remember to review if you want me to update.


	9. Tomb Raiders

**Red Crown:** What's up, readers. I am sorry it took so long to update. I had a bad case of writer's block and a ton of school work. Not a good combination for a fanfiction author.

I was also looking at my story traffic section and was amazed at how many countries the Power Puff Girls has gone to. I thought it was only an American cartoon, but now I see we have people that watch it in Australia, Canada, the UK, Brazil, Norway, Peru, Spain, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Thailand, Ireland, the Netherlands, Argentina, Bulgaria, Denmark, the Philippines, Colombia, Romania, Finland, India, Mexico, Austria, Singapore, India, Italy, Israel, the Northern Mariana Islands, Sweden, Puerto Rico, Belize, the Bahamas, Barbados, and a few other countries. I was surprised. So I would just like to give a nice "hello" from the good'ol state of California in the USA to all you readers that live around the world.

I hope you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

CHAPTER NINE: _**"Tomb Raiders"**_

_Meanwhile at the Utonium Chateau…_

"Girls, come see this! It's urgent!"

Buttercup and Bubbles left their homework and raced up the stairs to find their leader and sister on her computer with an internet window open.

"What is it?" asked Bubbles.

"The police finally emailed me about the robbery last night. I showed them the picture that Bubbles made of the tiny object that they were trying to steal. They said that some archeologist named Henry Stanford had discovered it for a certain collector. Stanford discovered it somewhere in South America. Here is his website," the leader of the Power Puff Girls said as she opened a new internet window.

The webpage was written in Spanish. "Bubbles could you read this please?" asked Blossom

"Cee," Bubbles said before starting. "Me nombre es Stanford…"

"In English." Buttercup corrected with a scowl.

"Sorry." She then started again. "My name is Stanford. The year is 1979. I have been in South America for five years searching for something that should have never been created in this world: a key to a gate filled with horrible things. My search started in Egypt with ancient hieroglyphics. There is where I discovered its existence."

Next to the text was an image of a man, which they guessed was Stanford, standing in front of an Egyptian pyramid with a large damaged Sphinx that had a scar over its left eye behind it. He was holding a tablet of ancient stone with hieroglyphics covering the front. A gasp escaped the mouths of the girls as they saw that one of hieroglyphs was a large red creature with yellow eyes, a small black beard, and large crab claws. It could be non-other than Him. In one of his claws was something that looked more like a black box with three arms that each held a ring with a jewel centered in it.

Bubbles continued. "The engravings in the ancient Egyptian stone point to four locations: One in Rome, another in South America, one in Egypt, and a last one in China. Due to the current conflict between Egypt and Israel I have decided to leave Egypt and start my search in South America." At that moment Blossom remembered that the Yom Kippur War started in 1978 when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. A lot of people fled the country at that time because of the war.

"After five years of searching I have uncovered the first piece of the Key. It was well protected by the natives, but after much struggle I negotiated a trade with them. The natives were currently at war with another tribe and were in dire need of food and weapons. I have plenty of money that I inherited from my parents and purchased such things to exchange for the piece of the key."

Next to his words was a picture of the piece of the key. It was then that the Power Puff Girls recognized it as the same object that they caught the masked thieves trying to steal. It was a silver ring with a sapphire magically suspended in the center of it.

Bubbles read the next paragraph. "However, I asked them where they found the key and to my surprise they pointed me to an ancient Aztec pyramid. There on a series of tablets I found another peculiar series of writings that describe the Key and its purpose."

As Blossom scrolled down another set of ancient writing was shown. Inscribed on the walls of the Aztec Pyramid were a set of Aztec writing symbols. The girls were shocked to find another drawing of a creature with large crab claws that barred a striking resemblance to Him. In his claw was the strange object once again.

"Whatever was behind the gate that this key opens, the Aztecs saw it once. It was only referred to as 'The Destroyer.' One of their historians could only describe it with this image."

Blossom shuddered as she saw the next stone tablet. It had the image of a human skull with angry eye sockets, long pointy teeth, and four horns carved into it. It looked just like the one in her dream. Merely looking at it sent shivers down her spine and brought back the memory of the fear she felt during the nightmare.

Bubbles continued to read on. "After I traveled to South America, I mailed the jewel home to my brother, who owns a fairly secured jewelry shop. I actually bought the piece myself and will have it shipped to me in Egypt where I will have the search for the next piece of the key after the Israeli-Egyptian conflict settles down. I made the purchase and just need to have a date set."

Abruptly the journal stopped and there was no more to read.

"So the jewel is a small part of an ancient key to something horrible called 'The Destroyer' and it looks like Him is somehow involved in this," said Blossom. As she continued to think it was then that she wondered exactly how old Him was. Even when they grew up as teenagers he had never seemed to age a day. It was possible that he was as old as the earth was, maybe even older.

"I don't get it. If Stanford made the payment and was ready to ship the Jewel to himself in Egypt, why was the jewel still in the shop when the thieves broke in. The jewel was there since 1978 and we saw it there yesterday and the Yom Kippur War has been over for a long time," the lead puff said thinking out loud.

"Maybe something happened to him," said Buttercup. "Something bad."

"This is getting kind of creepy. I don't like scary stories," said Bubbles.

Blossom immediately began to scroll up the page and found the pictures of Egypt. She began to search for clues and scan the photo of Egypt. She saw the pyramid and the sphinx and immediately her mind remembered a photo from her history book. She got up and grabbed her history book and found the desired page. It showed the exact same image. What made it distinct was the sphinx. There was no other sphinx in Egypt that had a scar over the left eye. Her history book said that the pyramid was dedicated to Seth, the ancient Egyptian equivalent of Satan.

She immediately got back on her computer and her sisters watched in amazement as she quickly began to search for the Pyramid. Within a few moments she had the location on a Yahoo Satellite map.

"There is where he found the tablet!" she said with joy. "I'm betting that the next piece to the key is in there as well. We'll need to go get it. Girls, how much homework do you have?"

"Very little," Buttercup said.

"Done," said Bubbles.

"Good, then we'll go tonight," Blossom insisted with a smirk.

"Wait, I'm still grounded remember," the green puff said with a scowl.

"I'll ask the professor to make an exception for you just this once."

* * *

_Meanwhile in Egypt…_

It was midnight in Egypt. All around were nothing but dunes of sand. The boys landed in front of the pyramid, clad in their black clothing and equipment. Right after their feet hit the ground Butch gave a loud belch. Boomer and Brick looked at their brother with amazement in their eyes.

"That was a juicy one, Butch," complemented the leader.

"Egyptian food actually isn't that bad. The scorpions were a little too stringy though," the green-eyed ruffian said with a smirk.

"Yeah," agreed Boomer.

Brick began walking toward the pyramid and searched for an entrance. There was no entrance in or around the pyramid. He decided to look at the sphinx. There was a small trap door near the sphinx's chest. It looked like it had already been dug up by an somebody that had arrived earlier. Brick looked down the trap door and donned his night vision goggles. He saw a stairway that went down and curved in the direction of the pyramid. He motioned for his brothers to follow and began to walk down the stairway.

The stairway went flat and they began walking on level floor not too long after entering the dark tunnel. They came to a halt when the passage way stopped at a set of double doors. Engraved on the doors was an image of two jewels, they looked just like the jewels that they had stolen earlier. The lead ruff looked to his left and noticed a stone in the wall with the faded image of a scorpion on it. On the floor at the foot of the door was a set of hieroglyphics.

"Boomer, read this," said Brick.

Similar to Bubbles' ability to speak Spanish and talk to animals, Boomer had the ability to read ancient hieroglyphics of any era or country.

"Death awaits those who enter," Boomer read aloud. "This place must be rigged with booby traps."

"Yeah right," arrogantly said Butch, "What's the worst that could happen to us?"

Brick kicked down the doors using his brute strength to open the way for him and his brothers. "Be on your guard, boys. I haven't read too much on ancient booby traps, but one thing I do know for certain is that they were very creative and deadly."

Behind the door was a long corridor with many pillars that formed a walkway. It was too dark even for their night vision goggles to see into. Attached to the sides of the pillars was a set of torches that had yet to be lit. The boys lifted their goggles and quickly blasted each one with their laser vision and they were set ablaze to light up the whole area. Lots of ancient Egyptian writing and pictures covered the walls. They continued down the corridor cautiously, while Boomer was busy reading the writing.

The blue ruff seemed curious. "These walls tell a story. I think it's about the pieces we're collecting," he said as he scanned through the ancient images.

"Boomer, I want you to stay here and translate everything into English. Butch, we'll go get the next piece," Brick ordered before he continued down the corridor. As ordered, Boomer pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and began to take pictures of all the hieroglyphs in order. He then pulled out a pen and notepad and began to translate. The ancient writing on the walls had nothing to do with the mission; however, the leader of the Rowdy Ruff Boys was curious. His boss rarely had any value for anything, not even human lives. "Why would this object be so valuable to Him?" he wondered.

Brick and Butch continued down the corridor until they came to another door. These doors were made of bronze and large in size, rivaling that of a telephone pole. At the center was a lock. Butch easily broke off the lock and opened the doors.

The two saw a set of torches and set them ablaze with laser vision. Inside was a tomb that was filled with chests. Near the back and centered in the room was a large sarcophagus which belonged to a pharaoh. It was made of solid gold. The sarcophagus was made to resemble the man inside so it had the face of a man and the design of his body carved into its forefront. The hands were holding something close to his heart. Brick looked at the heart and saw that it was exactly what he was looking for: the bronze ring with the emerald in the center of it.

It was then that the two rowdy ruffs noticed a corpse laying on the ground right in front of them. The man looked like he was dressed for a safari hunt. Brick could tell that the body was old, but not nearly as old as the pyramid was. The flesh had decayed away and the bones were the only thing that remained. He had died with a pen and book in hand and a backpack on his back.

"What happened to him?" asked Butch as he took a step near the body. However right where his foot landed a square piece of the floor began to sink into the ground.

Brick saw this and immediately pulled him back by the shirt of his collar. Exactly one second later the air infront of them was peppered with venomous darts that came out of holes in the wall to the left of them.

"Apparently he didn't watch his step," laughed Brick.

Butch merely scowled and continued on with his bother a little more cautiously.

They both floated over the man's body and the possible traps on the floor to reach the sarcophagus. Brick looked at the jewel closely and began thinking of a way to pull it out carefully. He wondered if there was some sort of trap this might trigger if he did it wrong. To his surprise his brother walked right over to it and carelessly jerked it out of the mummy's heart without any concern.

"Butch, watch it! You might activate a trap!" Brick said.

Butch realized that he wasn't thinking and merely said, "Oops."

Just then the ground beneath them began to shake. A loud rumbling could be heard throughout the dark underground ruins that they were in.

"See what I mean?" Brick said to his brother.

Suddenly an unknown force began to close the doors, attempting to trap the boys in the tomb. The two brothers bolted out of the doorway seconds before it shut and went on to find Boomer.

"Are you finished?" Brick asked his brother.

"Yeah, I got it all right here," he answered and stuffed the notepad in his sac.

Together all three zoomed out of the ruins and made it outside. The earth was still shaking as dunes of sand began to shift. Slowly it began to dissipate. Suddenly they heard several foot steps of something large coming their way. The boys turned around and saw a large monster before them. Its body was made of stone and it had the body of a lion and head of a man with a pharaoh head set on it. It was then that Brick recognized it as the Sphinx. It was alive.

It took one large swipe at them with its paw. The boys each leaped back and dodged the move.

Butch leaped up and gave a jump kick to its face. It impacted right on the nose and shattered a good portion of the rock off its head. The loud sound of stone breaking filled the night air. Boomer quickly punched the legs. The force of his blow broke the leg off completely and forced the stone beast to collapse on the ground with its three remaining legs. The mere force of its massive body smashing into the ground caused a minor earth quake. Brick flew high, then shot straight down and brought his elbow to bear. He slammed into the neck of the creature and its body crumbled under his might. The head rolled right off the shoulders.

The boys each landed back on the ground and stood ready to continue the fight should the creature get up. The stone beast never moved again.

"All too easy," said Brick with a smug smirk.

Just then they heard three feminine voices behind them. "Not so fast, bad guys!"

**Red Crown:** Remember to review if you want me to update.


	10. Revealed

**Red Crown:** In the words of The Joker from _The Dark Knight_: "Here we go..."

* * *

CHAPTER TEN: _**"Revealed"**_

_Meanwhile…_

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup had just flown over Algeria and Libya and were now entering Egyptian territory. Blossom looked down below her and spotted several Egyptian towns. Farther east of her were the Ancient Pyramids.

She flew further north and found the specific one that she was looking for to her left. To her surprise the Sphinx was moving and was fighting what appeared to be three figures clad in black. She instantly recognized them as the thieves she and Bubbles had encountered last night. This time there really were three of them. They made quick work of the sphinx.

"There's the Pyramid. How did those guys get here before us?" wondered the lead puff. Swiftly, Blossom directed her sisters to attack the thieves. The thieves were standing in formation. Buttercup would take the one on the left, Bubbles the one on the right, and she picked the one in the middle to be her target. Simultaneously, they dove towards them with intent to hurt.

"Not so fast, bad guys!" they said together.

At the same time they flew in together and struck their targets. It was a perfect attack. The thieves were too busy gloating over defeating the sphinx and didn't even see them coming. Three loud sounds of impact pulsed through the air as the thieves were each hit hard and knocked off their feet several yards back.

The girls landed on the ground a few feet from the suspects. To their surprise the foes got up from the blows. They knew that no ordinary human could withstand a punch from a being charged with Chemical-X.

Brick and his brothers regained their footing quickly. The leader quickly examined his subordinates. Butch stood and immediately assumed a fighting stance, ready to do battle. Boomer for some reason was hesitant again, but he assumed a fighting stance as well.

"Hello there," Brick said in a calm tone, his voice synthesizer was now turned on and actively disguising his voice. "Seems you're not as good as we thought you were. You're always one step behind us, _heroes_." He spat the word "heroes" with a mocking tone.

"Correction, we're not heroes. We're heroines. I know what you're looking for. It's a ring with jewel in it isn't it?" Blossom stated.

"Good for you," he said with a flat tone.

"Who are you guys and why are you searching for the pieces of the key?" asked Bubbles.

This made Brick even more curious. He had been told by Him to retrieve these specific items; however, he didn't really know what they were for. He didn't even know that they were parts of a key. 'How is it that my enemies know what I am searching for and yet I do not?' he wondered. All that Brick really cared about was destruction and causing as much evil as he could because he found pleasure in it. Boomer and Butch were his followers for the most part. His master only told him that the key would be a lot of fun for him.

"Why on earth do you think we would tell you?" Brick said.

"Because if you don't, we'll beat it out of you," Buttercup responded.

Butch immediately took a step forward and made eye contact with Buttercup. A smirk slowly came across his lips and could be vaguely seen behind his ski mask. "I'd love to see you try, _sweetie_."

Buttercup immediately became tense and hint of anger could be seen on her face. "What did you just call me?" she asked slightly in disbelief of the stupidity of this man.

"I didn't stutter," he said. The smirk on his face deepened. "Sweetie."

Buttercup immediately charged towards him with her fist raised and ready to strike.

Blossom remembered that the thieves were much more powerful than they looked and reached for her sister, but she was too late. "Buttercup, no!"

The green puff threw a punch aimed directly at the thief's face. With ease he caught it in his hand and stopped Buttercup cold in her tracks. With the smirk still plastered on his face Butch countered with a powerful front kick that landed dead center of her stomach. The force of his kick was more than enough to knock the heroine off her feet and sent her flying into her sisters. Bubbles caught her and stopped her from slamming into the sand.

At first Buttercup seemed like she was going to blow a fuse. Instead she began to smirk as well. "Finally, someone worth my time," she said.

"Attack pattern D-U-X!" Brick shouted to his brothers and quickly advanced on Blossom while his brothers went for their own counterparts.

This time Blossom knew what to expect. Brick attacked her with two swift punches, followed by a round house kick. The leader of the Power Puff Girls blocked all the attacks and returned them with equal efficiency. Her opponent was just as sharp as she was, because he blocked her moves as well. She finally found an opening and launched her fist directly into it. Her blow connected squarely with the enemy's head. He took two steps back, mentally recovered in a near instant, and stood ready to continue the fight. Blossom was impressed that her adversary could not only dish out punishment, but take it just as well.

Buttercup immediately was on the defensive and took two hits to the head from her opponent. Her opponent threw another punch towards her face. She tilted her head to the side and let his fist skim her cheek, before she smashed her elbow into the side of his face. The green puff didn't stop there. As he staggered back slightly she committed to a low spin kick that knock him off his feet and onto his back. She drove her fist down toward his head, aiming to cause extreme damage; however, her enemy moved his head to the side and grabbed her arm with both his hands after her fist missed him. The mysterious figure then kicked out one of her legs and with her off balance pulled her to the ground with him. In almost a moment he rolled on top of her and sat on her torso. The green puff found herself completely restrained and unable to get him off of her. All she could do was try to block the assault of strikes that went straight to her head.

Boomer attacked Bubbles with a series of kicks. She blocked all of them and quickly did a back flip to dodge a right hook that had been thrown at her. The blond heroine landed in a crouch and pounced forward with her fists out in front. They slammed dead center into his stomach, but seemed to have little effect as the blue ruff grabbed bother her arms, pulled her forward and shoved his knee into her face. The blow was stunning and caused her to have an immediate headache. She stepped back a few feet and held her head, trying to recover. This left a large window of attack for her foe. He could have easily continued the attack with an arsenal of other moves, but for some reason, to Bubbles' amazement, he didn't take it; he hesitated. The hesitation lasted only a few moments, until she recovered, then he pressed the attack.

As Brick continued to test Blossom's skill he found himself impressed. She was fast, durable, strong, and precise. However, he was in no way worried because he was holding back a little of his own speed and strength, just to see how well she could perform. Now he decided to increase his technique, not to maximum, but enough to cause some serious pain.

Blossom threw a right hook followed by a straight punch towards him. He blocked the hook and tilted his head to the side to dodge the straight; however, right after her fist flew by his face he reached up and grabbed her elbow. The red ruff in disguise yanked her off to his side and thrust his knee into her stomach. The resulting blow knocked the wind out of her and forced her to keel over. The villain then hammered his elbow down on the back of the heroine's head. She fell to ground, disoriented.

A smirk grazed the lead ruff's lips. She had gotten rusty over the years, since Townsville hand been relatively safe and not pushed her to her limits in anyway. Brick had been training for his revenge against her. In her current condition, she was not a worthy match for him. He knew he had the ability to kill her, but he had promised that pleasure to him. For some reason at that moment the thought of killing her seemed delicious to Brick.

"Maybe Him shouldn't have this glory." He thought to himself while he looked at her trying to recover on the desert sand. "I think I'll take it, but not now. The moment isn't right."

Buttercup unleashed a blast of energy from her eyes and hit Butch directly in the chest. The powerful blast forced him off of her and burned his chest. This allowed Buttercup to get back on her feet. Butch bit back the urge to give her some of her own medicine and resumed a fighting stance.

"Flash!" Brick shouted. What Brick didn't know was that his voice synthesizer had been damaged when he took a hit from his counterpart, so when he had shouted his voice was no longer disguised. He reached over to the part of his mask where it was placed and felt the damage. "Crap," he thought.

At that moment the heroic leader of the Power Puff Girls recovered and recognized the voice "Hey, that sounds like Rick Jones!" said Blossom as she regained her footing.

The boys put on their shades and headphones. Brick produced a flash bang grenade and pulled the pin. The six second fuse was set. Before the first second started Blossom came to an epiphany. The thieves were stronger, faster, roughly their size and there was three of them. Apparently they had something like their laser vision to melt camera lenses. The mistake the teacher had made when calling Rick Jones' name also was brought to mind. They suddenly became unmistakable. She used her X-ray vision to looked directly behind the shades of the one that she had fought with and into the leader's eyes. She quickly recognized him. She could see that he knew what she was thinking.

"You're the... the…" she found herself shocked and unable to complete her sentence.

Brick on the other hand could see just by looking at the expression on her face that she clearly knew who they were. Hiding his identity was no longer an issue.

A gust of wind flew buy them. For a brief moment it was completely silent. Swelling with pride he broke the silence in a whispered tone. "We're the Rowdy Ruff Boys."

Not a moment later the grenade went off. The girls covered their ears and looked away as a thunderous clap and a blinding white flash illuminated the area. When it had dissipated the girls turned around to find their opponents had vanished.

"Holy crap! They're back," shouted Buttercup with anger.

"Oh my gosh! I thought that we had finished them for good! They're even better than the last time we fought them," said Bubbles.

Blossom quickly let her leader persona take over. Her mind went from a frantic panic to a calm investigator. "Some one must have brought them back. We don't have any leads for that right now so the best thing we can do is search the Pyramid and see what we can find. Maybe they left something that we can use," she said.

She saw the entrance that the boys had exited near the spot where the sphinx was. The team of heroines entered the small trap door and passed through the hallway into the corridor. There they found the place had been illuminated by torches. The walls were painted with ancient Egyptian writing.

"I wonder what all those strange writings mean?" asked Bubbles. Her photographic memory was immediately active and saving images of the paintings.

Blossom knew this too. She may not be able to translate them, but with Bubbles' memory she could take the images with her and find someone that could translate it.

They continued to walk further down and finally came to two bronze doors. Buttercup tried to open the doors, but they wouldn't budge. The green puff became frustrated and punched a hole in the door. She reached inside and opened it from the other end.

Behind the doors was a tomb also lit by torches that had been left by the thieves. The first thing that caught Blossom's sight was a dead man lying on the ground. She could tell just by his clothing that he was not Ancient Egyptian. Only his bones remained.

Bubbles looked a little shaken by the sight, while it seemed to have no effect on Buttercup.

The pink puff examined his back pack. She gently pulled it off of the dead man and unzipped it to pear at what was inside. She found several dozen papers, a book, some equipment for dusting off artifacts, and a few other tools. The heroine took the papers and recognized them as identification papers. Immediately she found a name.

"This is Henry Stanford!" she said with joy.

She looked down at Henry once again and noticed that he had a book and pen in hand. Blossom picked up the book and recognized it as a journal. She decided to read the last entry.

_February 28__th__, 1981_

_I haven't much time so I'll need to be brief. I have found the bronze doorway to the ancient chamber where the Pharaoh's religious leaders and magicians were put to rest. I found his sarcophagus and to my surprise it had the next piece of the key right at its center. I was only meters away from it when someone shut the doors on me and locked me inside. I stepped on a trap by accident and a wall launched poisoned darts at me. I am dying as I am writing this. Should anyone find me I have left all that is needed to continue the search for the pieces of the key in a bank vault located in Townszville, USA. It's number is A-0642498. It is my dying wish that those pieces be collected and destroyed to prevent great horrors from entering this world. I can only hope and pray that whoever finds me has a good moral conscious and a deeply intense desire to do the right thing even in the face of extreme opposition._

The last words of the journal had been sloppily written and Blossom could clearly see that he was losing consciousness as he was writing this entry down. Silently she made a promise to Henry to fulfill his dying wish. She stuffed the journal in the back pack and put it on her person. "Girls, we have what we need. Lets go," she said. She turned around to find that Buttercup was no longer standing behind her; there was only Bubbles. She looked ahead and found her standing in front of the golden sarcophagus and staring at it with awe.

"How much money do you think we could make if we pawned this off?" she said thinking out loud.

"Buttercup, that's a national artifact! It would be like stealing another nation's history," she scolded.

"Oh fine," reluctantly replied the green puff as she crossed her arms defiantly.

In a short moment, they exited the room and departed for Townszville.

_Meanwhile…_

The Rowdy Ruff Boys landed back in the warehouse.

"That was awesome! They were completely no match for us," said Boomer with a smug look on his face.

"They didn't stand a chance! We could have killed them if we wanted to," gloated Butch, equally smug.

Brick on the other hand was dead silent. He headed for his room, a smirk on his face. He reached into his sack and pulled the jewel out, wondering why it was so important to his master.

"Listen up, boys. The Power Puff Girls know who we are now, which means that we need to accelerate the timing of the plan. That means…," Brick turned to Butch, "…you need to start going to your classes."

"Darn," replied the green ruff in disappointment.

Brick then turned to Boomer. "And you need to start hanging out with Princess, ASAP."

Boomer shuddered at the thought.

"But, boys, remember to do what you do best the entire day every day you are at school," said the leading villain.

"What's that?" asked the blond brother.

Brick removed his ski mask and put his bright red hat back on his head. "Be cool," he said with a smirk before disappearing into his room to get some sleep.

* * *

**Red Crown:** Now I won't update unless I get more reviews. Muhahahahahahahaha!


	11. Face to Face

* * *

CHAPTER ELEVEN: **_"Face to Face"_**

The city of Townsville …

The time was 8:00 AM. Blossom and her sisters entered their class with all their required materials; however the day did not seem normal at all. They could not help but to keep looking over their shoulder.

"When Brick comes in here we should pound the lights out of him and make him tell us what he's up to," suggested Buttercup as she sat down next to Blossom.

"No, there are too many people here and somebody could get hurt if we start a fight," replied Blossom.

"Well then what can we do?" asked her blond sister.

"We don't really have enough evidence to convict them by the law. The only thing we can do right now is go to school with them and wait for them to make a mistake, then exploit it," replied Blossom. _"That is hoping that they make a mistake before they get too far with whatever evil that they are planning,"_ she added to herself in her thoughts. As leader she decided it would be best if she kept her doubts to herself.

Suddenly the hotline rang. Blossom immediately dashed over to the phone and lifted it off the receiver. There was one hotline in every class that she had and she thought that the measure was a little excessive, but the mayor had ordered it and there was no way of reversing it.

"Blossom here... What?... We'll be right there!"

The lead heroine hung up the phone. "Girls we need to get to the beach! Now!"

With that the Power Puff Girls dashed out of the class room and flew toward the beach at an incredible speed, weaving through the massive buildings of the city.

"Is it the boys?" asked Bubbles.

"Nope, giant monster," replied her red headed sister.

"Finally! It's been too long since I've had some monster action," stated green-eyed puff with eagerness in her voice.

However, when they finally arrived on the scene they heard something that they didn't expect to hear at all: cheering. The Power Puff Girls exchanged quizzical looks with each other before rounding the final building of the city to arrive at the beach where the monster had surfaced.

There on the beach the ugly monster was laying, already slain. A massive crowd of Townsville citizens was gathered around the scene. They cheered and whistled and applauded for their heroes who had saved them from utter destruction. However, their heroes were not the girls. The Power Puff Girls looked toward where the praises of the citizen were directed and spotted three figures silhouetted by the sun, which had risen not too long ago. The figures descended out of the sun and revealed themselves to be the Rowdy Ruff Boys.

They hovered only 50 feet off the ground, before Brick raised his hand up and the applause and cheering ceased momentarily.

"Citizens of Townsville," he began. His voice seemed to echo through the sky so that all could hear. "You have no need to fear of such threats as this pitiful excuse for a monster. From now on the city of Townsville will be under our watch," He paused for effect "The watch of: The Rowdy Ruff Boys!"

The crowd went crazy again, cheering and applauding the new supposed super heroes. As the applause died down one citizen spoke up. "Hey, wait a minute! Didn't you try to help Mojo Jojo take over the world a few years ago?"

Brick immediately pointed to the citizen and with a solemn look on his face said, "Yes, I did." His expression seemed highly sad. To his audience it appeared as if he had been through much grief in the past and was filled with regret that the subject had even been brought up. His expressions immediately drove the city to have sympathy for him and take pity on him. "I have done many sins in my past. These things I have regretted for many years and the grief that they brought me has been unbearable. I did these things because I was brain washed by my first father and creator, Dr. Mojo Jojo, into believing that what I was doing was the right thing."

Within moments he had the citizens of Townsville hanging on his every word and pouring out compassion on him. "By the time I had realized that what I was doing was far from the right thing I had committed many horrible wrongs and destroyed many lives. I continued this because I had hoped that it would earn me the approval of my father. But little did I know that nothing short of world domination could earn me his approval. For my sins I must say that I owe you, the citizens of Townsville, an apology. Please forgive me."

Blossom could not believe it. The people of Townzville were shedding tears. "We forgive you!" they said.

Brick continued. "And now I give another apology to the people whom I owe it to the most." He immediately looked in the direction of the Power Puff Girls. The citizens followed his gaze and seemed to have just noticed that the girls were hovering there. With mist in his eyes Brick asked, "Will you forgive us, Power Puff Girls?"

There was a long pause. _"That clever little scumbag certainly knows how to act well,"_ thought Blossom.

Blossom instead decided to turn to the people of Townsville. "Townsville, are you kidding me? This is the same villain who tried to help Mojo Jojo conquer the world and you're going to trust him because he did one good thing after many years of hiding? That's very suspicious to me."

Just then, one citizen shouted from the crowd, "You're just being bitter because they got here first and you wanted the glory!"

"What!" shouted Buttercup in disbelief. "I beat up monsters and bad guys because I like to, Bubbles does because she wants to help people, and Blossom does it out of moral responsibility. Why do you think we would get angry over glory?"

"Yeah, right," another citizen said with sarcasm. "Then forgive the Rowdy Ruff Boys!"

Several dozen voices in the crowd began to agree with him and it was not long before the crowd was chanting, "Forgive them! Forgive them! Forgive them!"

The girls were completely shocked by how quickly Brick had obtained Townsville's favor. Grudgingly Blossom floated forward towards the boys. Brick moved forward as well while his brothers stood still, arms crossed and smirking at their leader.

The two leaders met above the middle of the crowd. Blossom extended a hand. "I don't trust you, but I will forgive you," she said.

Brick took the hand and replied with a heartfelt "Thank you."

The people of Townsville cheered wildly. While they cheered, Blossom said in a voice low enough only for Brick to hear, "I'll find out what you're up to soon enough."

For a brief moment Brick's heartfelt gladdened expression on his face switched to a smirk, then switched back. He gave no reply.

Afterwards they separated and returned to their siblings. The Chemical X charged teenagers then headed back to school and made it back to their classes on time.

Blossom and her sisters took their seats once again. The pink puff carefully observed Brick as he entered the class room.

The teacher immediately approached him. "Brick, you do understand that lying to the teacher, as you did to me yesterday when you claimed to the be 'Rick Jones,' is an offense worthy of disenrollment here at Pokey Oaks High," she said.

Brick was calm. This time he had come up with a story for himself before class and his acting immediately came into play. In a very polite and mannerly way he explained to her that he had been worried that other students might not understand that he had changed from being a villain to a hero and he was worried that they might make him a target of social isolation and humiliation. He also explained that he was waiting for the right time to let everyone know that he had changed and that he planned on letting her know in advance, but could not think of a way to tell her.

Blossom couldn't help but notice that Brick was extremely brilliant in how he handled people and how he acted. The teacher bought every word and he was let off the hook without even a slap on the wrist.

He took his seat next to Blossom. This time, during the whole class Blossom did not even acknowledge that he existed.

* * *

Butch entered his first class: Biology.

He took a random seat and sat in it without a word. He hated biology and that fact that he had it as his first class in the early morning only made things worse.

"Hey, that's my seat," said someone next to him. Butch cranked his head around and his eyes met that of a large student with a football jacket on. "Move it, dude," he added.

The green-eyed ruff merely grunted and ignored him. The student reached over and flicked the back of his neck. This extremely annoyed the green ruff. He didn't move, but instead waited for him to do it again. "Hey," the student said in rough voice before reaching over again. This time Butch reached behind him and quickly grabbed the student's fingers before he placed a crushing grip on them. The football player gave a squeal as the Rowdy Ruff pulled him forward and gave him a glare that could shatter glass. Once he saw that the student was afraid he shoved him back. The football player merely moved to another seat.

At that time the teacher walked in and the class quieted down. The teacher reminded Butch of Bill Nye The Science Guy. He seemed overly cheerful and highly energetic, the ideal person for Butch to avoid.

"It appears we have a new face with us today! Where is Mr. Butch? Please come up to the front and introduce yourself," he said with a delightful tone.

Butch grunted and got out of his seat to approach the front of the class, hands in his pockets. The boys of the class began to size him up while the girls stared at him intently.

"Hello, Mr. Butch. I am Dr. Oblinsky. Normally at the beginning of every class we go around and introduce ourselves. Since you weren't here for our first class you're going to make up for it today. So please tell the class the number one hobby that you have."

"I like to fight," he said flatly.

"And what is the thing you dislike the most?"

"Anyone stupid enough to get in my way."

There was a long silence in the class. Mr. Oblinsky then decided to have Butch take his seat again and cut his introduction short.

* * *

Right when lunch started Blossom and her sisters went to their lockers to put away their books. Their lockers were all in the same hallway. Buttercup's locker was right across from Blossom's, while Bubbles' was to her red-haired sister's right a few columns down.

Blossom put her books away and turned to her sisters. "Girls, today after school I plan on going to the Townsville bank to see if I can find Henry Stanford's research. Once I find a way to continue the search we'll work our way from there. We've got to catch up to the boys."

"We're right behind you, Bloss," Bubbles replied as she shut her locker. It was then that she noticed someone had been standing right behind her locker's door. He was the cutest boy she had ever seen. At that moment she realized that it was Boomer who she had been looking at. He seemed distracted with putting his books into his own locker, which was right next to Bubbles'. That in no way stopped Bubbles from being startled by the sudden sight of him and she let out a sudden and brief shriek.

The shriek startled Boomer and he immediately looked towards Bubbles, just noticing that she was there. He looked at her quizzically.

Buttercup and Blossom were there in an instant. "What did you do to our sister?" the green-eyed heroine said accusingly.

"Um… I didn't do anything. I was just putting my books in my-"

Boomer never finished his sentence. His brother's happened upon the scene and his leader cut him off. "Well, what have we here? You know, Blossom, three to one odds aren't really that fair," Brick said mockingly.

Boomer and Butch quickly stood to their leader's left and right assuming a formation. Butch had his arms crossed and his face had sheer hatred written all over it. Boomer had his hands on his hips and sported a scowl on his face. The Girls did the same and soon they stood face to face with each heroine facing her own counterpart.

"Mark my words," Blossom began, "You will lose. Your little ruse may have fooled Townsville, but it doesn't fool us."

"Blossom, you have me mistaken. I am seeking to find the pieces of the key so that they don't fall into the wrong hands," Brick replied.

"And your hands are a perfect place for them," Blossom said with sarcasm dripping from her mouth.

"I've changed for good. I no longer desire to cause destruction. We should join forces," he said.

"Yeah right," Buttercup said. "If you really want to help Townsville, just stay out of our way and clean up the mess we leave behind."

"Yeah," Bubbles added before sticking her tongue out at them.

"Fine we won't work together. I guess there's no point in continuing this conversation. Good day to you, Miss Utonium," he said before doing an about face and walking in the opposite direction of the girls. Butch followed him. Boomer went to his locker to finish putting his books into it. He stole a glance at Bubbles before he went to follow his brothers.

* * *

As the Rowdy Ruff boys went out to lunch two girls blocked their path and stopped them. One of them was blond, the other was a brunette. Instead of school uniforms, they each wore brightly colored clothes that revealed plenty of their finely tanned skin. Both of them had expensive jewelery and make up on as well. Their figures were very shapely and they were both very beautiful.

"Whoa," said Butch.

Brick seemed more or less irritated by the fact that they were blocking his path to the lunch line. "May I help you?" he asked calmly.

"Listen, Natasha wants you to sit with her at The One. What do you say?" said the brunette.

"Who is Natasha?" he asked blankly.

The brunette opened her mouth to speak, but the blond cut her off. "How rude of you, Meagan, not to introduce us to him," she said to her friend in a chidding manner and extended a hand towards Brick. "Hello, my name's Kaitlyn and this is Meagan. We've been going to Pokey Oaks since elementary. We could show you around if you like."

"That won't be necessary. Name's Brick. These are my brothers, Butch and Boomer." He said as he took the handshake. At the same time he stole a glance at the lunch line and could not help but notice that it was getting longer.

"We know who you three are," said Meagan. "So are you going to sit at The One?"

"I'll think about it, let me get my lunch first," he said as he immediately began walking toward the lunch line.

Butch decided that he would rather sneak off school campus and get his own lunch, even though going off campus was against the rules. Of course, that didn't mean much to him. Boomer went with Brick to the lunch line.

"Hey, bro. Where do we go after this as far as getting the last jewel?"

"When we get back to the warehouse I want you to give me the translation to those writings inside the Egyptian temple. I'll study those tonight, then once I find a lead we'll continue from there," confidently replied Brick.

"What about the girls? Are we going to need to fight them again?"

"Only if they get in our way," replied Brick as he got his lunch.

Right after he got his lunch the red ruff realized that he had nothing useful to do with his lunch time other than eat. He also realized that Butch had disappeared from his sight. Figuring that there was nothing better to do he decided that meeting this "Natasha" person and getting to know some of the students better might well be worth his time.

* * *

**Red Crown:** Remember to review if you want me to update. It motivates me to write.

Edit: This is funny. I didn't know if the city's name was spelled Townsville or Townzville. I went on the Cartoon Network website and discovered that it was correctly spelled Townsville. I fixed this error in this chapter. Sorry about that.


	12. Not as Evil

**Red Crown:** And after a long session of Command and Conquer Generals I have returned. Those of you that reviewed, Thank you very much.

* * *

_CHAPTER TWELVE: **"Not as Evil"**_

_The city of Townsville, Pokey Oaks High…_

Brick maneuvered his way through the lunch tables with Boomer right behind him. He knew where The One was since he had seen Princess walk in the direction several times, but he had never seen the table itself.

What he saw surprised even him. Unlike the other lunch tables, The One had a white table clothe that covered it. On the far side of the table was a TV that had been bolted on. Instead of the simple plank seats that the other lunch tables had, The One had several comfortable padded chairs that were attached to the bottom of the body of the table. Brick thought it was a highly excessive display of their wealth.

He decided that he would much rather walk by and be told to sit down rather than approach and take a seat himself. He walked by and went along the length of the table. Just as he had predicted Kaitlyn stopped him and asked him and Boomer to take a seat.

Casually the red ruff sat down and let his eyes scan around at whom else was sitting at the table. He spotted Meagan, Kaitlyn, Princess, several football players and cheerleaders that he did not recognize, and finally an extremely beautiful blond sophomore woman sitting at the center of the table.

"So, Brick, where is your brother, Boomer?" asked Princess.

Brick turned around and expected Boomer to be right behind him, but it was then that he found Boomer had disappeared as well. He turned to Princess and merely shrugged.

"Hello, Brick! This is Natasha," said Meagan as she motioned toward the sophomore woman sitting at the center.

Natasha extended a hand to Brick. "You are very lucky," she said with a moderate Russian accent. "Not too many people get to sit at this table without knowing somebody here on their first day."

Brick politely shook her hand, "This is actually my second day. And, yes, I am a very lucky guy," Brick replied with his trademark smirk. "I can tell you were not born in America."

"My family migrated here from the Russian Federation about four years ago. My father grew very prosperous off the Russian oil industry and purchased a house here. We live very well," she stated. "Townsville is a nice place to live isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes, it is."

"What are you doing here in Townsville? You could obviously leave at any moment. What makes you stay here?" she replied as she slowly bashed her eye-lashes at him.

"I guess I'm just looking for trouble."

"Have you found any?"

"More than what I asked for," the villain replied.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

Boomer was glad that he had successfully sneaked away from Brick without him noticing. Once he saw him heading towards the table where princess was at he immediately walked in the opposite direction. He didn't want to be anywhere near her. The blue ruff made his way away from the lunch tables and headed toward the lockers. Maybe he could find Butch and spend lunch with him.

He pulled out his cell phone and began to text his green-eyed brother to find where he was. However, as he was texting his wasn't looking where he was going and eventually walked into somebody carrying a tray of food. The food tray tipped as a result and all the food, which consisted of a burrito, peas, mashed potatoes, and orange juice, slid right off into the ground.

Boomer was slightly surprised to find that it was Bubbles who he had bumped into.

"Hey, you did that on purpose!" she said.

"No I didn't," he said sincerely. Boomer didn't know why, but as he watched her bend down to clean up the mess he felt a strange urge to help her. After a quick scan of the area to make sure that his brothers weren't watching, he bent down and began to pick up the bits of food.

Bubbles looked at him surprised. "What are you doing?" she asked slightly in disbelief.

"Helping you," he stated as a matter of fact.

After they had thrown the whole mess in the trash, Bubbles and gave Boomer a hard look as they stood near the trash can. An awkward silence seemed to move in until Boomer broke it.

"I guess I am not as evil as my brothers are," he said casually.

Bubbles tilted her head and curiosity began to take hold of her.

"Why are you evil in the first place?" she asked.

Boomer seemed a bit taken back by the question. No one had ever asked him such a thing in his life. After a minute of thinking he realized that he didn't have a good answer.

"My brothers and me have always been evil. I've got to stick by them, especially Brick. He's always looked out for me and I've followed him around all my life," he replied.

"Do you like being evil?"

"Yeah. It's fun a lot of times, but other times it's…" A flash back went through Boomer's mind of the night that they took the second jewel and Brick ordered Butch to kill the security guard. Brick merely thought of killing the guard as a tactical move necessary to win a chess game. Butch was clearly taking some sort of pleasure in it. For the blond ruff on the other hand, something churned inside his stomach and he did not like watching Butch do what he did. He would never say that to his brothers because he feared it would make him look weak so he had kept his mouth shut about it the entire time. "I guess there are some lines my brother's cross that I don't like."

"Why don't you tell them that you don't like it when they do that?" she asked.

"They would just laugh it off and make me do it anyway," he replied.

"Maybe you should stick up for what you believe," Bubble's said before she spotted her sisters. "I need to go to my sisters now. See you later," she said before leaving him.

Boomer watched her walk away. What she had said was pawning around his mind and soon he began asking himself the same questions. He decided to shrug it off for now and find Butch.

He pulled out his cell phone and discovered that Butch had replied.

The text read: _"pandex 2 blocks down."_

Boomer knew that "pandex" was short for Panda Express. He decided to head there as well.

* * *

_After School..._

Blossom headed to the Townsville Bank to see if she was allowed access to Henry Stanford's vault. She showed the bankers the journal and all of the possessions that she had taken off Henry's corpse as proof. After a lengthy process that took nearly all night in which the owners of the bank analyzed several bits Henry's possessions, mostly to affirm that the ID was real and that the handwriting in the journal matched that of Henry's other documents, Blossom was finally allowed access to Henry's vault.

One of the bankers led her down a long corridor of vaults with doors of five inch thick steel. Finally they stopped at one with the number _A-0642498. _The banker opened it with a key and let Blossom have a look inside. The leader of the Power Puff Girls reached inside and discovered several old papers and documents. She pulled them out and carefully placed them in her backpack. Something shiny at the back of the vault caught her eye. She lifted it out of the vault and, to her amazement, found that it was a small beautiful statue of an ancient Chinese dragon carved from pure jade. She carefully placed it in a plastic bag so that it would not get a scratch from anything around it.

She headed home to study the materials and hopefully find the next piece of the key before Brick found it. She had told Bubbles to draw the ancient hieroglyphics on several pieces of paper so that she could bring them to University in Iowa that she had found specialized in studying ancient languages. She hoped that Bubbles would finish by midnight.

* * *

_After School…_

Brick entered his room in the warehouse. The day had left him completely exhausted. He not only had to perform well in school, but he and his brothers had been going without a decent amount of sleep for sometime. He finally decided to head to his bed and crash.

Boomer had already given him the English translation of the hieroglyphics inside the ancient ruins. From it Brick had learned everything that Power Puff Girls knew. He had also discovered that the location of the next piece was somewhere near the southern end of an ancient Chinese city that hailed from the Zhou Dynasty. Two things puzzled him. In the ancient hieroglyphics there was a picture of a small green dragon that was necessary to unlock the key. Brick figured that he could get the answer from Him. The other thing that puzzled him was the Destroyer. _'What could it be?'_ he wondered. What exactly was he unleashing upon the world?

As he began to think about what his next move would be he decided to analyze the current strategic situation that he was in. The kids at school were extremely easy to fool. The teachers were even more easy. The most easy person to fool was Natasha. He had learned from his conversation at the table that Natasha was argubly the most beautiful and popular girl in school. She had communicated to him in more ways than one that she was interested in him. Brick didn't really care about her. He had achieved his main goal of the day, which was getting those pathetic idiot citizens on his side before the girls could reach them. They had proved to be easier to fool than he had originally thought. All in all, he had called the day a victory.

He knew that he had two options at that moment. The first option was to get an energy drink to make himself and his brothers more alert and head to the ancient Chinese city. The second was to get some rest. He looked over at his brothers and realized that they had already gone to sleep for the night. Brick decided that he should get some sleep as well since he didn't have enough information on the strange green dragon in the hieroglyphics. He collapsed in his bed and without another thought dozed off.

* * *

_Meanwhile..._

The clock read 1:05 AM. Blossom had just finished reading Henry Stanford's work and completed the agonizing process of putting the pieces together. She had discovered what the Jade Dragon statue was for as well. At that moment she knew that she had two options. The first was to get an energy drink from the fridge to get her sisters and herself more awake so they could go the ancient Chinese city to find the jewel. The second was to go to sleep. Blossom was tired, but she knew that she couldn't afford to let Brick get any further ahead than he already was. With this in mind she went down stairs and grabbed three energy drinks.

_"Tonight is going to be a long night,"_ she thought to herself.

* * *

**Red Crown:** I know this chapter was short. I've been kind of busy and have had a lot running around to do. Maybe I'll update soon if I get more reviews. :)


	13. Wrong Door

**Red Crown:** This story is back by popular demand. I am about to try something incredibly dangerous: writing and editing two stories at once. Your reviews would greatly help my efforts here.

* * *

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:_**"Wrong Door"**_

_In the sky's over Northeast China…_

"You better not be keeping us up for nothing," said the green puff. Buttercup began rubbing her eyes as they flew several feet off the ground. China was on the other side of the world from America so when it was midnight in Townsville the sun was high in the sky in China.

This was the farthest the girls had ever been away from home aside from the space missions that NASA had asked them to do.

In order to help them blend in the Power Puff Girls each bought a set of clothes made by Chinese brands. The clothes were rather dull-looking and avoided drawing any attention to them. Blossom was the only one with a black backpack, which held the jade dragon and Stanford's research. Blossom thought that her's and Bubbles' hair would also stick out in a Chinese crowd so she purchased two Russian ushanka hats that were made of furr. The hats were considered fashionable in China. Buttercup merely had to clean her hair and make it as smooth as possible. To the average Chinese person they looked like teenagers who weren't poor, but weren't rich either.

"Girls, this is the spot," said Blossom as she led her sisters down to the Forbidden City of China.

Blossom and her sisters landed on top of one of the many towers and could only see more ancient Chinese-style buildings for miles. To a person from the western hemisphere of the planet the Forbidden city looked like a castle of extravagant Chinese architecture that extended for miles.

"This city is amazing, Blossom!" said Bubbles as her sense of adventure began to swell.

"It looks just like the one at the end of Disney's Mulan, only it goes on forever." stated Buttercup in disbelief as she let her eyes scan the vast city.

Blossom immediately went into textbook-quotation mode. "It's the same city, BC. The Forbidden City is the place from where almost every Chinese Emperor ruled the states of ancient China. It now serves as a prideful example of Chinese history and an excellent tourist attraction."

Buttercup seemed confused. "I thought you said we were going to find the piece of the key in ancient ruins."

Blossom continued, "The Forbidden City was built by the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. There are rumors in history that they built it on top of the previous kingdoms that they had conquered to prove their dominance once and for all. If Henry Stanford's findings are true, then there are the remains of the city underneath the palace. Stanford also claimed that the key was broken up into four parts. We know that the boys have three. The last piece of the key should be down there. However, the key can't be used if it's not complete."

"Then once we get that piece," Buttercup said with a smirk, "It's only a matter of playing keep away from the boys."

"Exactly."

Bubbles turned towards her leader. "Bloss, you must be so excited! Isn't archeology what you have wanted to do your whole life?"

The red headed puff gave her sister a smile, but her eyes seemed a little sad, "Yes, Bubbles, but not like this. The thing is we are here without visas which is why we need to avoid the Chinese authorities."

"Why do we need to stay away from the police?"

"Bubbles, do you even know what a visa is?" Buttercup asked.

The blond shook her head.

"It's legal permission to be in a foreign country."

"Oh... Wait! Then we're breaking the law?"

"Yep," Buttercup replied with a smug look. "Fun isn't it?"

The blue puff shot a worried look towards her pink-eyed leader. "But, Blossom, the Professor's going to be mad at us!"

"Listen, Bubbles, ordinarily I would apply for a visa, but it will take about forty-five days for it to arrive. If the boys find out that the last piece is here, then they won't play by the rules. They will come and take it in a matter of hours and they will be one more step closer to completing whatever evil scheme they have dreamed up in their minds. What's even worse is that for all we know they could have come here and taken it already. There is no time to do this by the book. On top of that, we're theoretically stealing another nation's history by breaking into their ancient ruins. We'd never get permission for that even if we tried. I've considered this from every possible legal angle and there is just no way around it in the time frame that we have. This is the only way to stop the boys from winning."

While Bubbles looked horrified Buttercup immediately pumped her fist in the air. "Finally a mission with some spunk!"

"Buttercup, this should not be taken lightly."

"Whatever, Leader Girl. Where do we start?"

Blossom reached into her backpack and pulled out a small map that Stanford had made of where he thought that the entrance to the underground ruins would be. She had also printed a map of the Forbidden City online and held it next to his map to see if she could find a way around it. "It looks like it's this way," the red headed leader said before floating down the back of the building and into an alley so that no one else would see her using her powers. Her sisters followed and they walked through a crowd of tourists to the back of the main palace building. "My pen pal should meet up with us soon."

"You have a pen pal?" asked Buttercup.

"Yes, she's a famous Chinese archeologist and knows about our situation."

"But won't she get into trouble for helping us?"

"Nope, she doesn't know we don't have visas so she has plausible deniability."

"Plausible what?" asked Bubbles.

"If she doesn't know about it she doesn't need to lie about it since she is innocent," explained Buttercup.

Blossom put the map away and began scanning around in the people traffic with her eyes. "See if you can find her, she's wearing a red jacket with four yellow stars like the Chinese Flag."

Buttercup and Bubbles began to look around as well and eventually saw the jacket being worn by a young and very skinny woman around the age of 25 who was also searching through the crowd. The woman had dark long hair, round frameless glasses, white sneakers, American-style jeans, and a black tee shirt with several Chinese symbols in white written into it. Once she caught their eyes a smile lit her face and she raced over to their location. Blossom turned around just in time to see her and she yelled out something in Chinese with a smile. The woman replied back in Chinese and in no time at all she and Blossom were engaged in a conversation that the neither the blue or green puff could understand at all.

When it was dragging on for too long Buttercup began to get frustrated and tapped Blossom's shoulder. "So does your friend speak English?"

"A little," replied Blossom.

"Bad English," stated her friend with a thick accent. "My name is Xiao Lei (pronounced "Shao Lay"). Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Bubbles."

"Buttercup."

Xiao then reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a map of her own. "Blossom already told me everything in emails she sent me. So I come prepared. I know exactly where take you."

Buttercup and Bubbles both felt left out of the loop until Blossom spoke up. "Xiao happens to be one of China's best archeologists. I sent her the findings I got from Henry Stanford's safe in Townsville and she determined the exact spot in the Forbidden City that the last piece of the key would be. When we find the piece of the key, which is supposedly in an underground tunnel, it will produce a great archeological find that Xiao will take all the credit for so we are left completely out of the public eye and no one will know that we have been here. If the boys see us on the morning news they will get suspicious and begin to take action. We want them as clueless as possible."

"Follow me," Xiao said and led them down a street. She took a few curves before stopping at the back of the main tower in the city. "There should be a trap door right here," she said and began to sweep the area with her hands. Suddenly she felt a piece of the stone shift. There was hidden block of stone in the wall that could be moved inward. Xiao had moved it in, but she stopped half way.

"Perfect!" Blossom shouted ecstatically. "Let's push it in all that way and then we'll-"

"No, wait," Xiao said, "Ancient Chinese traps very complicated. They usually put two doors to a secret passage. One is right door and other is rigged door for people who they want to fool into walking to a violent death."

Xiao scanned further with her hand and found another soft stone that was able to be shifted inward. "Only one can be right one."

"How do know which one it is?" asked Bubbles.

"I read that our ancient ancestors left a verbal riddle in the past that if solved correctly led to correct door, but all the people who knew the riddle died off so our best bet is to guess," replied the Chinese archeologist. She pushed in the first stone. The floor beneath them collapsed. Xiao and the Power Puff Girls found themselves falling at an amazing rate of speed into a black abyss as a large stone shifted over the entrance and sealed them in.

* * *

**Red Crown:** Yes, I know this chapter was short, but I'm warming up to keep going. You all probably hate me right now so I will need to ask for your forgiveness in taking so long. I have a lot of work so updating will be slow. However, if you review I would be inspired to write faster. I also understand some of you were saying that there is not enough "Red Passion" in my story. I agree and I will make up for that in either the next chapter or the one after. Thank you for input.


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